Stargate: Rise of Midgard
by hackerkiba
Summary: What if the SGC is a competent organization dedicated to exploration? Where would it go and what would it do?
1. Chapter 0: Prologue

**Chapter 0: Prologue**

Deep within a certain mountain complex on Earth lies a marvelous and fantastic device of alien origin, called a Stargate. In 2006, the Stargate was discovered by humans. An expedition was sent to an alien planet on the other side of the galaxy. It ended in disaster, and the Stargate program has lain dormant until now.

Now: a group of humans gathers nearby to entertain themselves with a simple card game.

"I win, again!" the Sergeant announces. The losers refuse to react. It's not like they cared anyway, the game was just a way to starve off boredom while off-duty. Their job is to decommission this bunker, but with so few people, work is slow-going.

"I wish something interesting would happen," a private quips. The universe obliges.

In the background, the inner wheel of the Stargate begins to turn with a low-pitched whine. Confused, the sergeant and his group turn to face the source of the noise.

"What the hell?!," the sergeant asks, confusion in his face. The group has no idea what the device is, but they've decided among themselves that it's probably some crank's science project, built on government dime, that failed to produce results. Now, the science project is doing something completely on its own. A competent group would take cover at some point. But the action is so out-of-place that everybody just stares dumbly.

Slowly, the Stargate lights up as six chevrons lock into place. Then, with an audible "fwhoosh," a burst of blue energy erupts from the Stargate's inner ring, sending the sergeant and his group diving for cover. The burst stabilizes on a shining blue disc, and not a second later, a figure emerges from the gate, tumbling down the ramp. The strange man gets on his feet with noticeable urgency. He is dressed in shabby Abydonian robes, but otherwise shaven and clean.

"Ouch!", the ragged man says.

The group of soldiers belatedly realize that there is now an intruder in the base. Guns are drawn and pointed at the trespasser. "Unknown, identify yourself!" the sergeant barks as per protocol.

"My name is Daniel Jackson, and I need to see General West," he says. Then he realizes that guns are pointed at him and quickly raises his hands. As per protocol, he is taken into custody.

* * *

The Jackson's Home

Nagada, Abydos

October 13, 2007

* * *

"Yes, Yes, Yes. No, I don't know. My cul-"

Skaara watches the discussion from across the room. "I don't know" is a catchphrase that his brother-in-law is famous for. What kind of god would know so much, yet so little? He brushes the thought aside. Daniel is a man, just like all of them here, just a very wise one.

It has not been quite a year since his people and Daniel's had joined forces to slay Ra and his servants. Since then, many things had changed. For one, food had been plentiful. Since they were no longer being forced to labor in the mine, they could tend to their farms all year. Since they no longer had to make offerings to Ra, they were running a surplus. It was so much that people were starting to find other work. The thought reminds him that he needs to get back to copying writings. One day, Daniel says, there will be a machine to do the work for him, and he'll find other work again. But for now, he copies by hand.

After Daniel finishes his conversation, he comes back inside the family home. He proceeds to check the copies that the scribe made for any mistakes. The original manuscript is the first written record of Abydos' laws. Daniel and other scholars have laboriously listened to his father-in-law and other tribal leaders explain the minutiae of their laws, writing them down in every contradictory detail. Then they tried to unify the spoken account into a consistent set of laws. It's been slow going. In the meantime, Daniel and the others have decided to copy the manuscript at least ten times and store the copies in various places, some public, some hidden. Daniel wants to make sure that this document is not lost.

Skaara is impressed by such dedication. If it were up to him, he'd rather forget about the archaic and unjust laws that had burdened his people for thousands of years. But Daniel has convinced him and the others that history matters. If it weren't for him and the other scholars from Earth, the Abydonians would have never met their long-lost cousins from among the stars. Their rebellion would never have happened at all.

"Hmm. It's that time again," Daniel remembers, slightly late. "The meeting of the scholars. Skaara, we have to get ready."

"I'll go buy food for the guests." Skaara rushes off to the town square. Ever since its inception, Skaara loved the meeting of the scholars. He loves hearing Daniel lecture about the history of his world, especially about his distant Egyptian cousins. However, on most other topics, Daniel knows very little, and so he stumbles like everybody else.

Even so, there is one single topic that his brother-in-law continues to drill in the heads of the Abydonian scholars. That is the need for curiosity, skepticism and "science". As the leading authority on archaeology and history, nobody argues against him.  
Even so, there is one single subject that his brother-in-law continues to drill in the head of the Abydonian scholars. That is, the need for curiosity, skepticism, and how to do science. Still, as the leading authority on archaeology and history, nobody argues against him. There is no way to check what he's saying. Skaara himself is studying engineering, though so far all he's produced are toy models that do nothing useful. Regardless, he feels like he's outpacing Daniel's practical knowledge. For this, he is very proud.

Meanwhile, a steady stream of scholars is arriving at Daniel Jackson's home. His family is no richer in wealth than any other, even though his father-in-law is a tribal leader. So, scholars from all over the city and the countryside contribute food, parchments and other supplies.

His house is large though, but the space is reserved for study rooms, scholar meetings, the archive and the workshop.

With the preparations complete and Skaara returned from errands, some few dozen of scholars, along with Daniel's family, gather around the lit fireplace. A few present are recording summaries on parchment. Short summaries, as most of the supply got used up for copies of "The Laws, Before the Rebellion." The rest don't have anything, so they're mostly going by memory. Daniel rises up to start the meeting. The chatter dies down, and everyone looks at him attentively.

"Friends, I know that we have a lot to discuss tonight, like our experiments on spontaneous generation, Skaara's work on levers, the proposals for the group project and other things. But first, I have two announcements to make. The first is that one of the farmers, Ahmoes, has just today agreed to work only on producing parchments. In exchange, we're responsible for giving him what he needs to sustain himself."

The audience applauds in congratulation, an Earth custom that they picked up, to celebrate the good news.

"Second, the tribal council has agreed to hear our proposal to dig up the Stargate for study for a limited time. Since this is an important decision, we'll put it to a popular vote." That raises some murmurs. Few of the scholars present are sure whether to go ahead, since the benefit of learning about the Stargate is matched by great risk. Everybody remembers that the demon Ra and his servants came through the Gate. But so did their lost cousins who liberated them from slavery.

Among the scholars, the proponents barely outnumber the opposition. A few days later, the scholars present the proposal to the elders, outlining the benefits and potential risks of studying the Stargate.

"But, but..but..You haven't even thought about it for more than 5 seconds!" Daniel stammers.

"You have given more thought about it, know more about it, and have considered the potential danger. We trust your judgement." That was all the council had to say on the matter. "We agree to hold a referendum, per your proposal."

The referendum is called. Most Abydonians elect to follow their leaders' opinion regarding the study of the stargate. Thus begins Daniel Jackson's dig on Ra's pyramid. Sands and debris have to be cleared, and the stargate itself is a great risk. Diligently, the workers dig up and clean up everything else. Days turn into weeks, then into months, until finally the stargate itself is excavated. As soon the work is done, militiamen pour in to secure the gate, some with M-16 rifles, others with more primitive weapons like spears and bows. Soon after, Daniel Jackson begins translating a recently discovered wall of Egyptian writings. A mere day passes before Jackson believes that he has discovered something of great importance. The wall contains a list of Stargate addresses! Meaning that there are more gates like this one, which he already suspected, but still! The Stargate doesn't just connect Abydos and Earth, but many worlds among the stars.

Daniel's wide smile turns into a frown as he deciphers more of the hieroglyphics. The inscriptions are warnings, of other demons like Ra. Daniel knows he has to warn the people of Abydos and Earth. For several seconds, he feels the urge to run to town and tell everyone. But that would cause a panic. So he takes a few breaths to calm himself.

"Men, bury the gate as soon as possible," Daniel commands. "Stay on guard. The gate may activate at any-" The stargate whines a low pitch. One by one, red trapezoids lights up.

"Shit!" Of all the times. "Prepare to fire! Keep your finger off the trigger!"

A whirling vortex bursts forth, then stabilizes into the characteristic puddle. A man with a golden tattoo walks out of the gate, followed by several soldiers. They are dressed in the armor of a servant of Ra. However, Daniel fails to notice the tattoo on the men's foreheads. It should be the symbol of Ra, but it is not.

The Abydonians wait a few tense seconds to decide on the threat, as they were told that it might be possible that aliens could come in peace. Still, the men look like servants of Ra, which is good enough for them.

"Fire!" Skaara orders. From concealed positions, the men unload a hail of bullets at the enemies. The battle is a slaughter.

"Stop! Stop!" Daniel yells. By the time the barrage stops, most of the servants are riddled with bullets, laying on the ground in pools of blood. "I need to talk to them."

One of the servants is still alive. Daniel walks up to him. "Who the hell are you! What do you want?"

"What insolence!" the servant spits. "You will pay for this! Apophis will send-"

Daniel's face turns white at the realization. There were others like Ra? "Skaara, get back to town and warn the elders! The rest of you, bury the gate. I must go and warn Earth. Keep the gate covered for a week. At the end of the week, open the gate up for a day. Keep it guarded. I don't know what will happen, but I promise you I will try my hardest to come back."

Everyone rushes off toward their assignment, as Daniel dials the gate and leaves for Earth. The men carry off the bodies, while some prepare to rig the stargate for burial. As for Skaara, he has run off as fast as he can to warn his father and the elders.


	2. Chapter 1: Questions and Answers

**Chapter 1: Questions and Answers**

When the Iron lady heard of the stargate program, she did not react with any of the usual emotion that comes with opening a pandora box. The truth is, she has no capacity to care and no ability to deliberate.

She was previously on the run from her own government, imprisoned, then rescued all in the span of 45 days in the second year of her presidency. Thus, when the project comes to her desk, she rubber-stamped it and moved on to the most important item of the day, migrating and ameliorating the after-effect of a conspiracy ignited by the espionage disclosure from Agent Snow.

Thus, the program ran its course without any intervention, sending men into the unknown, cowboy style, without any real plan, war gaming, or any contingencies whatsoever. No thought were given as to how important the discovery of the stargate is. The exploration team did managed to come back, but half of the men are dead. As a result, the program shut down, declared an absolute failure and buried deep, and the president never hear anything. Two years passed, and her term is about over. After the tragedy that was in 2006, she elected not to run for the presidency. Before words can get to her that the stargate reopened, she happily shook the hand of the new president, Henry Hayes, and promptly left the whitehouse.

-o0o0o0o0o-  
**The White House**  
**Washington, Earth**  
**January 8, 2008**  
-o0o0o0o0o-

President Henry Hayes, who got sworn just yesterday in the day-long inauguration event, wants to savor the moment. Nothing is so much sweeter than sitting in what was previously the Iron Lady's seat of power, the chair behind the president's desk in the oval office. He reclines back into the chair for additional comfort.

Nobody is in this very room, except Hayes himself, just as he ordered. No fussy and paranoid secret service agents, no annoying assistants, and nobody telling him that he needs to scheme that or this. He knows that this won't last, but a little peace and quiet is what he needed after a year of hard campaigning and then preparing himself for the office. The new president, so relaxed and comfortable, begins to drift off to sleep.

But just at the right moment, someone enters the room, opening the door loudly and forcefully. This someone in question is the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, John Perry. The president immediately turns red, wondering who the hell think himself so important to rudely interrupt his nap.

"Mr. President? I am sorry to interrupt your alone time," Perry says in an apologetic tone. "It's very important. Someone came back from the stargate."

"The stargate what?"

"A device that is used to traverse interstellar distances instantly between two planets." The president takes a minute to process what the man just said.

"What the fuck?"

"A device that is-"

"I heard you already. Is it a tradition to play a joke on the new president?"

"No sir," Perry says with a straight face. "It is a very real device."

"Why the hell nobody tells me these kind of things? I am the president of the most powerful nation on Earth!"

"Well, for some reason, it is considered unimportant..."

"You're telling me that a device that is used for FTL travel between planets is UNIMPORTANT!?"

"I don't know what happened, but it was considered a monumental failure. The project was headed by General West."

"I don't care who's name is on the list, even if he is a traitor. I don't care if it's a monumental failure. I don't care what the Iron Lady thinks about this project. The most important device in the history of mankind deserves my full attention. Now, where is this device?"

"It is located at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, sir."

"Get your ass there and find out what the fuck is going on there. It better not be a joke. And oh, ask my assistant to get all the files related to the stargate project."

Perry rushes out of the office as quickly as possible, fleeing the angry aura that surrounds the president.

"Holy mother Jesus Christ," Hayes says in disbelief.

-o0o0o0o0o-  
**SGC (To be commissioned)**  
**Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Earth**  
**January 11, 2008**  
-o0o0o0o0o-

In the level above the stargate, several gentlemen begin to settle down around the conference table. Beside the table and the chair in the room, no decoration of note was there, not even a potted plant. The first person on the left is Major Davis, of the US Air Force Black Research Division. Unlike the rest of the officers here, he has not followed the career path to any number of typical paths in the air force. Instead, he has opted to specialize in aeronautic and scientific research, hoping to fulfill his childhood dream of building "really advanced" weapons, especially warplanes. As such he spent most of his career managing off the wall DARPA projects or being called on to rescue procurement programs which were about to blow , he is dealing with yet another wacky project, this "Stargate"program. No matter how hard he tries, he was never able to predict which projects would have the biggest overall impact, or utterly fail. Stargate, which was previously considered a dead end, has just became the top priority in his division.

Opening up his briefcase, he gives everyone in the room the briefing folders about the Stargate program, and then introduces the men in the room. With Daniel Jackson at his right, Colonel Jack O'Neill, Major Charles Kawalsky Major General George Hammond, and the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff John Perry.

"Gentlemen, as Doctor Jackson has warned earlier in his interrogation, we are facing possible incursion from aliens that have attacked the people of Abydos, There are more aliens like those of Ra." the major announces.

"We don't know much about their capability. Burying the gate and hoping like hell is an option, but that is reliant on the aliens being unable to figure out."

"Figure out what?" Jack O'Neil interjected. Major Kawalsky stared at him for an uncomfortable second. Then Major Davis sighed and replied dramatically, "Just ... figure out in general."

"So, I am not going to get arrested after all?" Jackson asks.

"No, but people do get a little freaked out that a strange man appears out of nowhere in the middle of a highly sensitive military installation," the major replies.

"But the guard did say so. Everything indicates that I need a lawyer, and soon."

"Jackson, you are currently at a meeting with senior military officials," the bald man assures. "That should already suggested to you we are not here to press charge and imprison you. Anyway we do need to know why exactly O'Neill lied to us in his report. Didn't he killed Ra? Colonel?"

"Sir, I did kill Ra," Colonel O'Neill admits. "But in orbit, via teleporting the nuke into his ship. If the nuke is left on the ground, it would have killed us and the natives outright and left Ra alive. Besides, If I came back and report to General West the truth, he would have ordered another nuke to ensure no danger will come from the stargate. But as I see it, the threat of Ra was eliminated and Earth is safe. We have no reason to kill a few thousand human beings just for absolute safety. But now I just saw him on CNN arrested on charge of treason..."

"What?" Jackson exclaims.

"Agent Snow's Disclosure. Long story. Happened a few months back."

"Understandable," Hammond nods. "But it is probable that they could visit our world via the stargate. Maybe we should still destroy Abydos' stargate and ours to ensure that the two world will be safe."

"General, if the stargate allows FTL travel, than it is a possibility that aliens possess some mean of FTL travel," Major Davis interjects. "Even if we destroy the gate, they could come to us by ships."

"They don't know that Earth had come through the stargate. We killed Ra and all his serv-."

"General, they had already composed an epic about our exploits and the rebellion," Jackson interrupts. "Not only they know about our expedition members, they also know about many facets of Earth, if only in vague outline. Once the aliens conquer Abydos, they will use the Abydonian's knowledge against us. You see, condemnation is already our destiny once we step through the stargate, if that is truly our fate."

General Hammond thinks about what Jackson said for a few quiet moments. "Very well, I concede your point, but the stargate leads to worlds inhabited by Ra's race, no?"

"That is an assumption," Davis jumps in. "The worst case is what you say, but it is a possibility that it was created by another race. As far as I am aware, those symbols on the stargate does not resemble any hieroglyphics that any archaeologist, including Doctor Jackson, had ever seen. The style and designs are definitely not Egyptians. The most optimistic case is that the stargates in Abydos and Earth are part of a vast network that connects worlds across the galaxy. "

"But we only have addresses from Ra."

"Which we will be avoiding at all cost. Not until we can be reasonably sure that success will come from recon missions to Ra's planets. I tasked Doctor Carter and her team to work on finding new addresses that would work. We have failed in the past to make any sort of connections to other world, but with the addresses provided by Ra, we presumably have valid examples to work from."

"Did we dial any of them?"

"No sir, that would be too risky at the moment."

"Very well, we will continue the stargate program contingent on Doctor Carter's success. Major Davis, what's next on our agenda?"

"Doctor Jackson will inform us about the possible MO and the history of Ra's race," the major says in a factual and neutral tone. "Jackson, please start when ready."

"As you can see in my report, I found evidence that Ra is not the last of his kind," Jackson begins. "You see, according to Abydonian mythology, Ra defeated other gods to protect his chosen people. The walls told us that he fought on multiple planets..." Minutes go by as Jackson explains his finding. "Any questions?"

"Why would he return to rule over a few thousand slaves?" Perry asks.

"It's definitely true that our Egyptian ancestors rebelled and force Ra to retreat. Maybe he came to Abydos to rebuild so that he could reconquer Earth. Maybe Abydos was the last vestige of his empire. Maybe the history depicted on the walls are all a lie. I don't know."

"So, it's prudent to assume that Ra is the weakest of this race of aliens." Hammond concludes. "The aliens are so much more advanced than us that it shouldn't be an issue for them to wipe us out anytime anyway they want. After all, they already know how to build nukes several more time powerful than ours, as well having ships capable of interstellar travel."

The mood in the rooms becomes somber. The men at the table knows that they are royally screwed, with or without the stargate. It's only a matter of time.

"If we have many years without being discovered, we could make advancement that allow us to take on our enemies." Perry suggests.

"They also have that many years to make technological advancements!" O'Neill counters.

"If they are so advanced, why do Ra impersonate gods and enslave lesser beings to do their work for them?" Jackson wonders. "Do we really think the rest of Ra's race operate that way? But then again, humans from a different god came to check on Abydos."

Awkward silence fills the room. Nobody could figure out why Ra and his race operate this way.

"I believe we have reached a consensus that we should use the stargate to explore, for ill and good that comes out of it. It's the only way to uncover the mystery of those aliens." Perry asserts. "Pandora's Box will continue to be opened and actively tempered with. Let hope to god that we don't screw this up. We also got a standing order from the president himself. As thanks, we will try to relocate the Abydonians, should they wish to do so."

"Well, jeez," O'Neill replies skeptically. "Thanks for the kind gesture. I really appreciate that. But this is not the level of responsibility we can take, not in our condition, as much as I hate it. Did someone throws an idiotball to the president?"

"The president is afraid that the stargate committee will be using the non-attempt against him after disclosure. Now, we have a good reason too. The abydonians are inadvertently now a potential goldmine for intelligence against us, especially our military capabilities."

"Okay dokey. I am going to take up on their offer." O'Neill agrees, half smiling. It's probably the only chance he will get to ensure the safety of the Abydonian from the menace of Ra's race.

"So we will be sending recon units to Abydos," Hammond asks.

"That's the plan, sir." Davis replies. "At least, at first. The relocation of the Abydonians will require locating and scouting a planet first, planning logistic, writing a manual on concept of operations, and so much more. It may takes a few months or a few weeks. We don't know. In any case, I plan to look over everything. If there's anything I've missed or forgotten, the general and I will find it, and our plan will be continuously adjusted. Time is of the essence here."

"Which mean Colonel O'Neill and Kawalsky will pack up for the base in Area 52 once this conference is adjourned," the general adds. "Major Davis already selected the appropriate operators for your exploration team. You will see their profiles in your folder. Any information that is pertinent to Abydos and exploration of worlds will be transferred to you and your team as soon as possible."

"Daniel Jackson will be leading the diplomatic mission to persuade the Abydonian people to prepare for exodus," The general continues. "In which he will be heading back through the stargate as soon as the team and logistics are ready. In the mean time, we have UAVs and ground bots ready for recon to a planet as soon we obtained usable addresses to possible worlds."


	3. Chapter 2: Preparation

**Chapter 2: Preparation**

* * *

Stargate Command HQ

Area 52, Earth

January 16, 2008

* * *

An apache helicopter flies over Area 52, first over the multicolored dots that scurries before an invisible line that separates restricted area and civilian space. Anti-military protestors, Hammond thinks. Agent Snow did the right thing, but he also released a bunch of doozies as inevitable by-products. General West, his predecessor, only made it worse. No doubt anti-military blogger will be watching the Area 52's every move, every energy bill, every single individual that come in and out of this base. Keeping SGC a secret will be hard work, because the new base for Stargate Command being constructed here.

Hammond snaps out of his worries about the protestors, as his helicopter flies over two lane of semi-trucks. He look forwards to meet the new complexes of base. All he can see is what resembles a container port, complete with cranes, multicolored containers, trucks, humvees, and scurrying dots dressed in desert BDUs. With a little more flying toward the base, he can see that the multicolored containers are actually color-coded. Black goes out to the parameters of the base which resembles a rectangle. While red, orange and green congregate inside. There were other colors in the mix too, but he cannot discern any of their purpose. As his helicopter close in more, he see that some containers are folded out as if they were origami objects, some were slotted in like lego, while others look like a container sized piece of machinery.

Containerized base deployment. Wow, they took it to a whole new level. Hammond knew beforehand that the Cheyenne Mountain complex is ill-suited for stargate exploration. It cannot be used to do vehicle deployments and it's hard to build inside of it, since the complex was only designed as a missile silo. He thought to request the use of an empty complex nearby, but apparently the higher-ups sold the land to help pay off the national debt. They already plan to use Area 52 to put together a few base to consolidate all the military personnels from closed bases across the country. So, for good measure, they shoved SGC there too. He's not going to complain about what they decided for SGC. It's far better than the cover story of opening a deep space telemetry operation as part of NORAD. Finally, the apache helicopter lands on one of the nearby helicopter pad.

The general takes note of the situation as the chaotic situation around him develops. Men from every direction walks to their destination around the helicopter, cranes move with speed and grace, and whining noise proliferates the surrounding as containers actuate. The sky fills with clouds, clouds that were spewed across by planes. Presumably, it's to hide the base from prying spy satellites.

"Sir! General Hammond?" An officer in blue air force uniform calls out to him. It's Major Paul Davis.

"How's the base deployment going?"

"Faster than I predicted. Whoever ran the R&amp;D program for containerized base deployment, I'd like to poach him."

"Did they implement the defense layout for the stargate?"

"Yes, with some changes. Any plans that come into contact with reality generally end up altered or destroyed. I shouldn't spend more than hour on it when others can do it so much better while on site. We are installing 50 caliber emplacements around the gate room, along with catwalks to provide our defenders the advantage. Surveillance camera, motion detectors, fingerprint locks, and so on are installed. We have to wait on a few things, like the containers for decontamination and quarantine."

"There is a container for everything."

"Not exactly everything, but we are getting there as R&amp;D marches on. The decontamination unit in only in the prototype stage. The whole system itself only just entered production two years ago. We're literally receiving the first batch out of the warehouse, sir."

"Time is of the essence here. We'll need to quickly set up a new homes for every man, woman, and child from Abydos. This system is perfect for that. We do have barrack containers, right? How soon do you reckons we complete this base?"

"Yes, a barrack container is one of the first thing they developed. We have a week until the base is completed, top."

"Wow." Hammond staggers back a little. He knew that his military's prowess in logistic is second to none, but he didn't know it had gotten that good.

"I already falsified information about how many containers we'll be using, and-"

"Hold that thought. I just realized something important. We can't do explorations from Earth itself. Anytime they return home, they risk leaking our address to god knows what. We'll use a FOB for that. At first, we will use the FOB on whatever the planet we will move the Abydonians to, but only for the purpose of establishing a new FOB. Our primary role here is to do planning and logistics, not carry out exploration."

"You are a genius, sir, and I meant that seriously. It's completely obvious in hindsight. I didn't know why I miss it." Hammond ignores the praise.

"How's the address calculation going?"

"With luck, we will have several addresses both near us and far from our star system by the end of the day. All of them should be far away from Ra occupied planets or Ra visited planets."

"Good. I see that we are going to have the stargate installed by the end of the day. Rovers and UAVs ready?"

"We have enough to explore ten worlds."

"Excellent. Once the stargate's iris is installed, we will begin operation. Our objective is to establish a FOB and secure a planet for the Abydonians. Oh, did you falsify the logistics information?"

"That, I already did. I was going to tell you but you interrupted me."

"Good, wouldn't want those anti-military types questioning why we need food for a few thousands too many. Let tour the base complex, shall we?" The two men walks away from the helipad midst the chaos that surround the base.


	4. Chapter 3: Exploration

**Chapter 3: Exploration**

* * *

Stargate Command HQ

Area 52, Earth

January 17, 2008

* * *

Doctor Samantha Carter, USAF Captain and astrophysicist, as well her collaborators had been working on the problem of generating addresses for the last several days around the clock. They didn't go home to sleep, shower, or to relax. Instead, the scientists brought their pillow to work, took shower in the unfinished base, and drank lot of coffee. Every couple of hours, they would do a relaxation routine, usually watching a science fiction movie or television series to recharge their fried brains. The gate address generation team also snubbed their colleague by hogging supercomputing hours as much as possible, gaining them many enemies.

With several address candidates ready, the team today has the opportunity to test their handiwork. Only, the test is currently going miserably.

"Chevron 7 locked," a bald man in an air force jumpsuit announces. "But no connection this time."

Doctor Carter and her teammates collectively sighs as frustration mounts. Harriman, the announcer in charge of the dialing computer, continues his work as if nothing happens. One last person in the control room is Major General Hammond, who is there to get a feel of how gate operation will work. All of them are crammed together in a tiny metallic container sized room full of monitors, bulky computers, keyboards, and control panels.

This is the 14th address tried and so far, they have no luck. She has no idea if it is because a stargate is not located in that region of space, or if it is because the coordinates are nonsense. 14 failure ends with at least 14 hypothesis proven wrong. Science works by the process of elimination, disproving ideas after ideas until it arrive on the idea that accurately predict the experimental result. Still, the process of elimination doesn't mean much if you have more addresses than stars in the galaxy to play with. She hopes that this evening will yield a working address, which will absolutely narrow down the possible hypothesis about how stargate coordinates are laid out.

Otherwise, her team will be forced into another marathon of research and development until either they succeed or General Hammond finds a different solution to the Abydonian dilemma. She isn't exactly looking forward to working really hard again.

"Trying the next address," Harriman continues. "This is the last one on the list." The stargate spins again, emitting a whining noise and draining large amount of electricity from the power grid. The atmosphere tenses up with anxiety. Many in the room tighten their body, grit their teeth, or cross fingers. This is the last address of the day. It's now or never.

"Chevron 1 locked. Chevron 2 locked. Chevron 3 locked." The announcement continues until the last chevron.

"And...we have a connection! We got it! We got it! First connection other than Abydos!" Loud cheers fill the room, transforming the mood from anxiety and disappointment to jovial and relief.

"Send the robots when ready," the general triumphly orders.

"Monitor view switched from gate room to the rover. The rover is moving toward the horizon." The rover this time is a prettier version of the rather ugly MALP(Mobile Analytic Laboratory Probe), resembling more like Martian rover than an antiquated robot.

Once the rover is on the other side of the gate, the monitor reveals that the surrounding is a lush hilly landscape of grass, nothing that would be out of place on Earth.

"Approximately 0.7 gees. Nitrogen 68%, 21% oxygen, and the remaining 11% are composed of various gases, which are not dangerous. The lab rats are not dead so far."

"We got the drone ready to launch?"

"I am already on that, sir." A few airmen drag a drone catapult launcher into the gateroom. With a loud boom, the catapult slings the drone into the air at an angle, and then into the event horizon, finally exiting into the air of the alien planet. It fires the propellers and rapidly climbs until it reaches an altitude of a thousand feet.

"Look like the stargate is situated in a patch of grassland, but there are what look like forests nearby. Some looks like bamboos and some looks like redwood trees. We got what looks like snow capped mountain covering north and northwest. As far as bodies of water go, I see a river crossing the plain and into nearby forests to the South. Again, it looks like Earth."

"We need more of the planet surface."

"That is not possible, sir. If we fly the drone too far from the stargate, it may not be possible to get back. This recon drone is designed with GPS navigation in mind." The general frowns at the lack of capability.

"Ok, let the drone and rover surveils the surrounding area. How long they can last?"

"The drone can fly only about 8 hours top, and the rover can last a week if it's not moving."

"We'll check back every four hours to send in a fresh drone. If there's nothing worth worrying about in twenty-four hours, we'll send in a RED HORSE unit to build a FOB and temporary living quarters nearby. Any questions, comments, or concern?"

"General, I want to my team to go with RED HORSE when they ship out," Carter asks politely.

"For what reason an astrophysicist and her team should be stepping into the unknown?"

"If we can get the constellation of stars for Abydos and this planet, we can drastically improve the accuracy of the address generation algorithm, which will improve our chance of a successful connection."

"A good reason, but I have to deny your request. Until we can provide the proper security and defense, I am not letting any scientists on the planet, especially a national treasure such as yourself and your team."

"But the dron-"

"End of discussion. I prefer to be safe than to be sorry. If you don't need me, I'll be in my office." The general makes a beeline to the door, leaving everyone else to discuss the finding in the rather cramped control room.


	5. Chapter 4: The Stargate Spy Game Begins

**Chapter 4: The Stargate Spy Game Begins**

* * *

Asgardian Probe  
Oort Cloud, Sol System  
January 21, 2008

* * *

The Stargate in Area 52 opens and closes constantly, sending cargos, radio signals, and people to and from Abydos and the newly discovered planet. Each time a connection is formed, it creates a burst of energy that emanates outward in the subspace dimension, before rapidly decaying into noise, not even reaching the nearest star.

In the last few days, an alien probe lying in the Oort Cloud continuously intercepts a series of signal originating from Area 52. With each new data point, the onboard computer improves its analysis of the signal, testing and failing hypotheses until it reaches an inexorable and important conclusion.

Such conclusion triggers the probe's return home subroutine. The information must be forwarded to its master ASAP. The probe then opens a large rift into another dimension of the universe and propel itself into the 'window'. After the probe gone through, the window closes. The probe has disappeared from the solar system.

* * *

Asgard Space Station  
GEO orbit, Cimmeria  
A few hours later

* * *

Onboard an alien space station orbiting a planet called Cimmeria in a system several hundred light years away, a computer beeps.

"We are receiving subspace communication," a frail and diminutive grey being announces. "It's from one of our probe sent to the Midgardian home system." Then the being realizes that the person next to him is fast asleep.

"Loki? Are you there?" His partner finally awakes from his stupor.

"Yes, what is it, Kvasir?" the grey asks in an annoyed tone.

"The Midgardians have started using the stargate," Kavsir summarizes what he said when Loki was asleep. Some other time, Kvasir will need to mettle out punishment to Loki for sleeping on the job.

"What? How?" Loki tries to feign surprise. No emotions show on Loki, as Loki and Kavsir's species are incapable of much facial expression.

"I don't know. They had rapidly advanced in their understanding of astronomy and mathematics. A most unexpected development."

"And we are going to send a probe near Midgard to find out more?"

"No, not just that. A full scientific investigation is in order. We are going to send in atmospheric probes, sniff their communication network, and then we'll eventually investigate on foot." Loki gulps at the last part.

-  
FSB HQ  
Moscow, Earth  
A few minutes later

The Asgard is not the only entity to notices that something strange is going on. Russian spy satellites managed to penetrate through the cloud that were seeded by planes when construction went on. Those images were then eventually transmitted to the Russian FSB headquarter in Moscow and stored on the local server later for analysis.

"Comrade, they think they can hide their base building from our satellites," a Russian analyst sneers. "What good does it do? They can't hide their tech long enough to make a difference."

"Dmitry, have you took a look at the other pictures?" another analyst asks.

"No. Is it very interesting?"

"Yes, very much so. We are seeing significant cargo traffic."

"So, what? They are expanding their bases to make more rooms for their dislocated soldiers."

"I assure you, they are not expanding."

"No change in their structure?"

"Absolutely nothing. The semitrucks return, but often without the container." Dimtry's eyebrows rise at the illogic.

"Boris, what do you think is going on?"

"I would say they are building an underground base, but I don't see any dirts being carried out."

"A great mystery. The higher up are going to be giddy and deadly afraid about this."

"Vodka?"

"Vodka!"

Boris pours two shots of cheap vodka for the two men.

"To the glory of Mother Russia and the failure of our sworn enemy, the United States of America!"

"Glory to-"

A woman with a long pony tail and a fierce looks walk into the room. The two men quietly scramble to put away their vodka contrabands.

* * *

Stargate HQ  
Area 52, Earth  
A few minutes later

* * *

"Welcome to the SGC," the bald general greets the young man in his blue uniform. "Have you received the orientation package?"

"Yes, I did, sir," the young man replies. "Permission to speak freely?"

"Is this stargate for real?"

"Yes, it is real and we are not alone. And you'll be hitching a ride on one of the semitruck and then back to earth as soon as possible."

"Why, sir?"

"Because I need you to believe in the existence of the stargate as soon as possible. I have a job for you."

"Oh, that make sense. What will I be doing, exactly?"

"You'll be playing a traitorous son of the bitch selling secrets to anyone who cross your way." The young man's jaw drops in response to the job description.

"You don't have to accept the position, Captain Harold Maybourne, but since you know our secrets, you'll be working a desk job at this base for the rest of your career."

"Oh, fine. I don't have any choice, do I? When will I start working?"

"Actually, it's more like with who and where. You will be reporting to the CIA for training, and then you will be eventually assigned to the CIA Stargate directorate. The only reason why you are here is so that I know you are not a traitor."

"Can I ask you why I am selected?"

"Aside from passing security check, you know enough about military research to be a convincing liar, and you also once were blackmailed by a rouge intelligent agent in the past. Fortunately, your integrity held. We'll be using said blackmail to fabricate a background that is enticing to spies."

"So, where do I need to go?"

"You will be traveling blind," the general says in a serious and ominous tone.

"Great," Maybourne remarks sarcastically.

"Airman? Once Maybourne is done with his tour, escort this gentleman off the base."

After a quick visit to the paradise planet on the other side of the wormhole, the captain is unceremoniously shoved into a black sedan with a bag over his head. As the sedan speeds away from the headquarter of SGC, one could almost hear the cry of one hapless USAF captain.


	6. Chapter 5: Exodus

**Chapter 5: Exodus**

* * *

Dunes of Abydos  
Abydos  
January 24, 2008

* * *

Surveillance operations is something that is second nature to Martouf/Lantash, an Tok'ra agent with over hundreds years of experience in espionage and covert actions against the Goa'uld and other races. But this operation rates among the most memorable in many years. Whatever the desert dots came from, they seem to be on an amicable relation with the villagers. There are certainly no sign of bowing or prostration from the slaves. But what is troubling to him is that villagers are constantly disappearing leaving their homes to be demolished.

Thus he moves closer to the city to get a closer look at one of the outlying home. Slightly over the dunes, he takes out his binocular and immediately zooms in one of the home with moving dots on it.

* * *

"So, are you ready to move?" Jackson asks the young lady, who is the last to evacuate.

"Will I ever be?" The young lady answers. "I am leaving the only place I ever known. A place my brother dies for only to learn that we have to leave."

"From what they had told me, it's a land with an oasis that reaches far beyond the eyes can see."

"It must be a blessing from my ancestors."

"We are very lucky. I just hope it isn't a trap." The girl looks confused.

"When did you ever lead us astray?"

"Sir? We finished packing." The soldier informs.

"Well, drive away to the stargate." Suddenly the radio clacks.

"We got 3 unidentified boogies. Repeat, we got 3 unidentified boogies," the disembodied voice warns. Two triangular ships dive into the atmosphere.

* * *

A beep comes into Martouf/Lantash's earphone. He scrams for his ship nearby.

* * *

"Hang on to your seats!" the soldier warns. The modified dune buggy fires up its engine and accelerates as fast as possible away from the house, kicking up sands in its wake. A loud boom follows, destroying the lady's former home.

But soon two ships are now on the dune buggy's tail, and they start discharging bolts of energy. Cloud of sand and dusts are sent into the air where the energy bolts hit.

"Fire at will! Fire at will! We are pursued by hostile boogies!" The dune buggy makes many sharp turns in order to shake off the enemy's aim. The ships persistently follow. Several whooshes ring out from the base of the pyramid. Not a moment too soon, projectiles fly past or slam into the ships. They were missiles. One of the ship quickly list into the ground, tumbling dangerously close to the buggy. The other ship continues its firing on the buggy. Another salvos of missiles were fired. The last ship sways away from the buggy to dodge the incoming missiles.

"Charles zero niner, abandoning position, over! All civilians evacuated from city?"

"Copy. Two more civilians in buggy. We're coming in hot."

"Good luck, nothing we can do here. Over and out." The SAM installations implode, spreading shrapnels into the air but hurting nobody.

The remaining ship sways back into its position and tries to strafe the buggy with more bolts. It keeps missing the target.

"Jackson, can you fire that machine gun at the back?"

"I can try!" A series of burps quickly follows. The ship's metal exterior shrugs off the bullets, but some of it got through the window. However, the ship continues the pursuit.

"Here we go, coming in straight and hot. You can stop firing now." The buggy lines itself to the entrance, while the ship pulls up to avoid hitting the pyramid. It hits the tip of the pyramid, causing the ship to crash into the ground.

"Anybody in the way? Over?"

"This is base, you are good to go. I repeat, you are good to go." The buggy perilously dives into the opening of the pyramid. The driver applies brake as the buggy navigate the narrowing hallway. Once the gate is in sight, he pushes on the accelerator hard, launching the buggy into the puddle and then into a planet many light years away. Once there, the stargate's puddle disappears, but the buggy continues its momentum, stopping only after sideswiping the wall leading out of the gateroom.

"Are you guys ok?"

"Other than the sands in my eyes, I am fine. How about you, lady?"

"I am fine."

* * *

The harrowing escape is not the last action of Earth on Abydos. Back on the desert planet, C4 charges activate, leveling the city and the mine. The cartouche that contains the addresses that Ra had visited or conquered are then torches by preset thermites, destroying forever valuable archeological data. Everything that is writing or painting are burning into oblivion as well. Another set of C4 charges cave in all the rooms, burying the stargate. That's not all. Two thermobatic bombs were preset in the center of the pyramid and the city. Activating several minutes after the C4s, the city bomb creates an enormous mushroom cloud that further turns everything into an even more unrecognizable mess. As for the pyramid, it simply ceases to hold its shape, as the inside burns and chars. Finally, all the wells are poisoned with human wastes and rotten animal corpses and the local river is poisoned with oil slicks and radiative waste.

* * *

From low orbit in his cloaked spacecraft, Martouf/Lantash can only looks at the destroyed landscape with agape horror. He wonders at what the barbarians/saviors have meant to do with the people of this planet. He can understand evacuating the people, but destroying the city? What's for? Unless, they believe that the planet could be inhabited by another "god" and his slaves. That's the only thing he could come up with.

Two group of Jaffa survivors are stuck on the planet. He smirks at the notion. Oh well, they are hardy enough. He'll get another group of Tok'ra agents to capture and interrogate them. No use wrestling with dangerous foes one on many. He fires up the hyperdrive, and his ship disappears from low orbit.


	7. Chapter 6: After Action Reports

**Chapter 6: After Action Reports**

* * *

Apophis' "Summer Home"  
Chulak  
January 27, 2008

* * *

Ra had not sent his emissary to Apophis' court on time. It's why he recently sent his emissary to Ra's court to that pitiful planet. Except his emissary didn't return either. Even stranger, he didn't get a note from Ra that he killed his men and just declared a little war. Which is why Apophis sent two group of Jaffa to the planet to do a little raiding and a little reconnaissance. They didn't come back either.

Normally, when one invaded another's territory, one expects disproportionate retaliation. Apophis is prepared to pay the price. Of course, nothing happened other than a loss of a few worthless Jaffas. Was there another system lord behind this? No, they would have boasted of their little conquest of Abydos. Is Ra dead? Even if he was, his Jaffa would continue to fight in his stead to avenge Ra's death.

So many puzzling aspects, yet no answer. Apophis begins pacing in his bedroom incessantly, gritting his teeth. Maybe his Jaffas aren't dead at all. They simply joined Ra's service. After all, he's the Supreme System Lord of the Goa'uld Empire. The Jaffa would easily be awed by his wealth and strength. No, that's not it either. Ra would have mocked him by sending him a note about just that.

"What's wrong, my love?" A sultry voice asks.

"Nothing, my Queen, just a little mystery."

"Those mysteries of your always turn out to be nothing to worry about."

"Sheer paranoia allowed us to survive for many thousand of years!"

"It was also trust in me that allowed you to survive this long. If you were paran-"

"Not you of course. Others, I trust them as far as I can throw them."

"So, tell me about your little mystery."

"My brother had not been responding to me as of late," the system lord begins. "I sent my emissary but they never returned. I sent in some raiding Jaffas for a little testing, they never returned either. Yet, no response of any kind from Ra."

"So, what will you do?"

"I'll won't send in more Jaffas. I don't want to provoke my brother's wraith because of a continuous incursion into his territory. Instead, I will 'suggest' an idea to a greedy young system lord to invade Abydos."

"That's a good plan, my love. Here's to the continuation and success of our empire and our bid for Supreme System Lord."

The two rulers let out an evil maniacal laughter.

* * *

Tok'ra High Council  
Tok'ra Secret Base  
January 28, 2008

* * *

In the society of the Goa'uld, which Ra and Apophis belongs to, supreme system lord is top dog, in charge of their empire. Beneath this ranking are the system lords. Their whole civilization is a feudal society that relies on slaves and keeping them ignorant. Luckily, not every "Goa'uld" supports the system. There are those who opposes the system of slavery and injustice. They are called the Tok'ra.

Per'sus, the supreme high councilor of the Tok'ra, walks with urgency to the council chamber. He puts on his game face to hide the whirlpools of emotion that disturbs both the symbiote and the host. It is very much necessary since he is going to be reporting very important news to the council, especially Garshaw.

"Supreme High Councilor Per'sus," the deep voice addresses. "One Martouf/Lantash under your command had recently conducted surveillance operation against one of Ra's planet, which is named Abydos. That is correct?"

"Yes, Garshaw," the councilor confirms. "There were some rather strange things going on that planet, starting with the debris in orbit. In particular, my agents and I believed the debris come from Ra's spaceship." Murmurs erupt in the council chamber.

"Ra is dead?" Another councilor asks. The chamber ratchets up in noise level as excitement fills the mind of the Tok'ra.

"A strong possibility, but both Goa'uld and Tok'ra are often capable of great escape when everything seems impossible. We had not witnessed Ra's death so we have to assume that Ra is still alive, somehow."

"This explains why we haven't heard from Ra for two years," Garshaw concludes.

"That's not all. Lantash believed that Ra's death was caused by a primitive nuclear device. In addition, he may have witnessed the people who had caused the death of Ra. This is only a hypothesis, of course. It could be that they are unrelated."

"Can you expand on that?"

"Of course. They whisked away the natives through the stargate and then they destroyed everything they can. They even poisoned the wells and the local river. Before you ask, Lantash believed that it was an attempt to delay or deny the Goa'uld the use of the planet and to render the stargate inoperable."

"So, Lantash believed them not to be barbarians."

"We don't know anything at this point," Per'sus counters. "My agents also taken the liberty to destroy any remaining artifacts they left behind, as well exploding a naquadah bomb in orbit. This way, no goa'uld will be able to find out the identity of those who did it."

"Do you have a guess as to who it is?"

"We knew two advanced races that are capable of making such an assault, the Tollan and the Herbidans. However, Tollans have a policy of non-interference. Thus, this mean the Herbidans are the remaining and most logical choice, but the technology used on the planet is primitive, even for the Herbidans. Aside from their 'nuke,' which is admittedly very effective, they still use projectile weapons."

"So we have a new player on the intergalactic stage."

"A very cunning one that understand camouflage."

"Of uncertain motives as you said," Garshaw warns.

* * *

The Whitehouse  
Maryland, Earth  
February 1, 2008

* * *

If retirement is an option, Hammond would have seized it long ago. Throughout his career, Hammond never had been in mortal danger, had never needed to order his men to attack anything, and had never even been in combat. Yet, he gets promoted anyway. Then, duty intervened at the last second, thus he is now in charge of a genuine combatant command, which also saw the first real combat just a week ago. It was on another planet, with his soldiers being chased by hostile aliens. He recomposes himself after thinking about that. Pretty soon, he'll have to face the joint chief of staffs, some senators, and the president himself.

"General? Are you ready?" A voice rings out. It's Major Davis again, the consummate and indispensable organizer and a master for bringing R&amp;D efforts to conclusion.

"Yes, I am ready. We'll do my AAR and briefing on the general state of SGC, and then afterward, you propose your idea." The two men enter a room deep beneath the whitehouse, then they settle themselves in the center facing a group of men in the front. It was like a hearing, except in a grey and Spartan bunker.

"So, we're here to debrief General Hammond on the close call that is Abydos," the president announces. "What's going on there and what is the mission?"

"Mr. President, you ordered us to see to the evacuation of the Abydonian people to a new planet we now call New Abydos. It is a resounding success. Everybody is accounted for down to the last person."

"But you have those aliens trying to shoot down your men and Doctor Jackson at the last second. Jackson is a national treasure and untrained civilian. Who left him on that planet?"

"Yes, but Jackson is the only person who could communicate with the populace. He's also the sole ambassador."

"Have you done everything to rectify that?"

"I am already doing everything I can think of in finding people who can speak Egyptians and other languages. The problem is background check and security clearance."

"Why do you need other language speakers?"

"Mr. President, I doubt aliens speak only one language. We need every conceivable way of communicating with them."

"So, if we have stayed around a little too long, we would have lost the Abydonians and maybe some of our men as well."

"That is correct. If it weren't for the fantastic logistical capability of the US armed forces, we would quite literally failed the mission. In fact, Major Davis here want to poach the man responsible for containerized deployment."

"Consider it done." Major Davis' jaw drops in response.

"What? You cannot do tha-," a Chief of Army Operation blurts out.

"General Preston, may I remain you of your army's precarious situation here?" The other military chiefs smirk. "So, what have we found out about the aliens?"

"We believe that the alien spaceship are of similar style to Ra's spaceship, or what O'Neill and Jackson could remember. So, it's likely that the alien spacecraft is related to Ra. Thanks to Jackson wearing a standard infantry helmet with a combat cam mounted on it, we now have a picture of what the alien look like and some idea of their capability."

"Which is?"

"Not very good. They used direct energy weapons, which is something we haven't figured out yet. However, they don't seem to have a high rate of fire nor are they particularly accurate. However, Ra's race knows space travel for thousands of years, which mean they should have blasted that dune buggy out of the ground. It's likely that this spacecraft isn't trying to kill the dune buggy but is trying to disable it." The room falls into a somber mood, just as Hammond did several weeks ago in Cheyenne Mountain.

"That's the end of the debriefing about Abydos. However, that's not the end of meeting just yet. There are many aspects to the Stargate program we must discuss. I do want to know why you brought Major Davis with you."

"He did some research on space warfare and he found a few important insights to share with the Joint Chief of Staff."

"Davis, can you explain briefly your insights?"

"Yes, Mr. President. Apart from New Abydos and Earth, we should not settle on any planet."

"What for?"

"Undoubtedly, you have heard of the change that General Hammond implemented regarding exploration procedure. That is, we use FOBs, not Earth, as center of operations for exploration. This is so that we do not leak the address of Earth to unfriendly forces."

"Yep, we also implemented a number of protocols that preventing the leakage of Earth addresses to anyone. Only computers know the address of Earth."

"Sooner or later, the address of Earth will be leaked. Perfect security is impossible, as we have learned from Agent Snow's disclosure. Either someone will use Doctor Carter's algorithm or one of the dialing computer get hacked. Once everybody knows or could easily find out, everybody who travels through the stargate will be able to leak the address of our homeworld, willingly or unwillingly."

"Well, what can we do about it?" The Chief of Naval Operation asks.

"Like I say, settling or colonizing on a planet should not be considered. It's a fixed location by stargate standard. Instead, we should build a mobile colonial fleet. If we ever figure out FTL, then we can move colonists if their location is ever compromised. If they don't know where we are, they can't hit us."

"But what about New Abydos?"

"We don't have the technology to build spaceships, let alone spaceships with a method of FTL. It's unavoidable that we will colonize a few planets."

"So, we will still live on Earth, right?" The president asks.

"Yes, I don't expect us to abandon Earth, at least not without a very good reason. In the very long term, we may want to consider making Earth into a spaceship. That way we can have our cakes and eat it too."

"Very well. We are going to build spaceships and launch rockets anyway. I do have to adjust our long term colonization plan. Hopefully the next several presidents will listen to your sage advice." The room erupts into small laughter. "You may be excused, Major Davis."

"Hammond?" the president starts again. Hammond goans a little inside. Meetings, and more meetings. It's the bane of any general.


	8. Chapter 7: A Visit to New Abydos

**Chapter 7: A Visit to New Abydos**

* * *

Stargate HQ  
Area 52, Earth  
February 8, 2008

* * *

Nothing prepares Bill Lee, PhD in material science and mechanical engineering, for the presentation in that particular base in Area 52. He thought it was a joke. Well, who wouldn't? It's hard to believe a story that involves, practical FTL travel, evil aliens, long lost cousins, and working direct energy weapons. Then the presenter does a staff blast on the range to convince Bill Lee and his team that they are at least, not entirely bullshitting. Of course, what's the purpose of the military spinning tall tales about aliens to a group of incredulous onlookers? Finally, they were allowed to poke around the gateroom and see people actually travel.

Then there's the whole matter of preparing for gate travel, which is worse than any security measures Lee ever been subjected to. First, there's the whole DNA matching, fingerprint scan, and eye scans all to ensure that Lee is actually Lee. Then, as standard procedure, everyone is subjected to bloodworks, urine sample, and lot of pointy needles. Next, there's more pointy needles to inoculate Lee and his team against almost all the diseases they could think of. Thank god they don't need to do this very often.

Finally, he has to shower and fetch new clothings which he then learns is also standard procedure. It's ridiculous, because the clothing he came in with were freshly laundered this morning. It's unlikely to contain dangerous bacteria or viruses, or any other dangerous contaminants or anything like that. Lee momentarily fumes at the military's irrationality. Still, SGC is the best assignment in his entire career, so he's going to put up with the command's extreme paranoia and anal-retentive procedures.

"Doctor Lee and his team are to reports to New Abydos main base," the airman informs. "You are scheduled to do so at the next connection to the planet in about 13 minutes."

"Where do we go?" Doctor Lee asks.

"You'll all want to take a bike. It's a lengthy ride from here."

"Do we get to see the control room?"

"Dude, it's on the other side of the base. You don't want to miss your flight or you'll have to wait 8 hours."

"What? Why the control room over there?"

"Hell if I know."

Lee and his team rides their bikes to the main gateroom down a wide hallway capable of fitting two cars. As they journey closer, the interval between the blast doors narrows until they finally reach the gateroom, which is surrounded by several machine gun nests, caution lines, and treadmills,

"The stargate symbols are covered?" Lee puzzles. "I haven't seen that in the gateroom just this morning." The stargate begins to rotate.

"And it got a computer voice doing it instead of a human doing it manually, too," a female voice comments.

"I noticed that too, Angstrom. You are still carrying your orientation packet in your hand, right? Did they say anything about that?"

"Well, nothing."

"They must have changed things only recently."

"Chevron 7 locked," the computer voice announces. A connection forms.

"Anybody going to try? How about you Felger?"

"What? Me?"

"Please get moving and do not hesitates," an irate airman informs. "Don't muck up the supply line."

"Ok, you don't have to tell us in that tone," Lee shoots back. The engineers momentarily pause before the puddle. "3, 2, 1, go!" They splash into the horizon and then into New Abydos, and then fell into the ground, only for the treadmill to start moving them. A container enters just after the treadmill finished moving his group.

"I see." Lee looks back at the container. "The treadmill is so that we wouldn't get squashed from the back. Clever. Must have taken some time to set it up too."

"Actually, It's only about two weeks or so," an airman on this side jumps in.

"What?"

"They also took only one week to set up this base and the village outside."

"There's a village outside?"

"Mostly tent city, since we are still in the process of building the parameter. Take a look at this map."

"My god, how can you build this in a few weeks?"

"Don't know. Don't care."

"All new personnels are to report to room 3B," the same identical computer voice announces. The airman leads the team to the briefing room, in which the team is forced to endure a thirty minute session from an uninspired major droning about the regulation and the brief history of the city. Finally, the major hands out information brochures to each member of the team.

"So, what now?" Felger asks, unsure of what to do next.

"Well, we got room 4C," Doctor Lee thinks out loud. "To conduct our research on direct energy weapons we stolen from the evil minions of Ra. Other than that, we aren't expected to work today, so..."

"We explore," Angstrom completes.

"That's a splendid idea!" They make their way to the rooftop as quickly as possible to take in the sight of the first alien world they ever set foot on. From there, they can see the squareness and right angles that is the dominating layout of the city and base. Only the hills break the layout into irregular shapes. The outer walls are chained-link fences backed by towers located regularly across the parameters. Land bounded robots patrol the parameter, while overhead, the drones endlessly circle the city and beyond. The most noticeable feature is the few cranes that towers above the artificial landscape that are still moving containers to one location to the next.

To the South, a herd of camel like creatures roam about while a group of heavily armed humvees surround them. Meanwhile, in the North, a group of soldiers is constructing a trench near two forests.

"Well, I guess I can't be surprised that they are still building," Lee remarks. "I am seeing parts of the fence where razor wires aren't even deployed. There's several large holes being made which I assume will be where they place artillery pieces. These guys are fricking paranoid, I tell you."

"You're singing to chorus, Doctor Lee," Felger notes. "We gone through the same security procedure back on Earth. Why do you think they wouldn't replicate their behavior here."

"It's dusk," Angstrom observes. Flipping over the brochure, she finds the daylight cycle. "Hmm, it says that this world is always in perpetual sunlight and that they have two suns."

"What?" The group says in unison. Lee wonders if there's more surprise in store.

"There's a tavern near the center of the city," Angstrom notes. She pinpoints the location on the map. "We can't miss it."

The group decides to head for the tavern. As they move closer and closer to the center, traffic thicken, and their movement slows down. Murmurs of both English and Egyptian aggregates mysteriously, until Lee and his team were able to trace it to the big screen nearby where people are gathering.

"Wonder what they're watching?" Lee makes a break for the giant screen. Angstrom and Felger, not wanting to be left out, follows the doctor into the fast growing crowd.

From the video, they see an outline of a pterodactyl-like flying creature, with sleek leathery skin, and bumps on each wing. It climbs up into the air, and then suddenly begins diving toward a herd of animals. The herd of animals, that has been previously minding its own business, senses the danger. The herd gallops as fast as it could. But the flying creature ignites its jet engine, accelerating the creature faster toward the herd. Bursts of hot gases can be seen from its bump. It swoops over and swipes a prey right out of the herd.

"It's, it's a JET equipped flying predator!" Felger exclaims.

"What's going on?" a deep voice asserts itself. It's an old man in a marine BDU, with greying hairs and tough looking face that seems to have gone through a lot. He walks over to the television screen as the crowd instinctively makes way for the gentleman. He stares at the screen for a few minutes as the video replays over and over again. With each replay, the man's face scowls more and more into an angry face. Finally, he turns to one of the airman in the crowd.

"SOLDIER! Yes, you! Move your ass to Earth and tell General Hammond I want ten containers worth of Stingers and ten containers worth of Patriots delivered here, stats!" Without further ado, the airman scrams toward the gate building.

"Isn't that overkill?" Felger ponders.

"Overkill and paranoia is what the military do, Felger".

"You mean being prepared and never underestimating your opponent," the marine retorts.

"I don't mean to offend you," Lee apologizes. "Yes, I agree that being prepared is a good thing."

"What's your name?" Felger wants to know.

"My name is Colonel Harlan Beck, of the United States Marine Corp. I am in charge of defending this city and base from invaders and the local wildlife."


	9. Chapter 8: Discovering Heliopolis Part 1

**Chapter 8: Discovering Heliopolis Part 1**

* * *

The Jackson Home  
New Abydos  
February 17, 2008

* * *

"MANIFEST: 3 Green Berets. 1 Coptic fluent speaker, 1 egyptologist. 2 civilian colonists. 1 airman. Their names are the following: ..." Jackson groans in frustration. Nobody speaks the language of the Abydonians, not even the Egyptians on Earth. The closet on Earth is coptic, which is a language very few speaks. With a few thousand speaking a variant of ancient Egyptians, three translators plus a newbie is not even too little. It's almost nothing.

Click

"We would like to emphasize that the soil of this planet, while unusually high in many metals, are not poisonous or dangerous to your health. Same for any plant matters that grow out of it. In fact it may help to explain why the native grasses and bamboos recover so quickly..." Even after hearing this announcement, Jackson still refuses to eat anything derived from this planet.

Click

"MANIFEST: GVCS Bulldozer, GVCS Sawmill, GVCS Induction Furance..." Jackson wonders what GVCS stands for. All those military abbreviations are giving him a headache.

Click

"Husband, have you tried the jet stew?" a female voice speaks.

"Is it...safe?"

"Your people's animal scholars ate it in front of everyone at the market square just hours ago."

"Sha're, I don't feel like eating strange foods even if they say it's safe, especially a creature that has jet engines."

"Are you sure? It's quite good." Sha're takes a bite into the meat. Jackson clenches his face in worry. "Don't worry, I won't die."

"Doesn't ma-" His phone beeps. "Oh, it's the base. They're finally starting up exploration again. I'll see you at dusk." He takes his laptop and shoves it into his USAF issued rucksack, then he heads out into the street of New Nagada. It seems quite crowded this afternoon, or is it midnight? He can't quite tell. In any case, he has quite a long walk ahead of him. All the time in the world to take into the sight in this new town.

As he walks to his destination, he smell the enticing street foods, made from whatever happens to be brought over from the other side of the gate. Horde of people make conversation with each other, mostly in ancient Egyptian, and a few in English. It's a lively city, certainly much livelier than many of so called American "city". The streets are still dirts, though clobberstones are starting to appear here and there. The green tents are slowly and gradually being replaced by container sized steel modules.

* * *

30 minutes later.

* * *

"So, why are we waiting on Jackson?" a man wonders.

"Colonel Beck, we were the ones who are here ten minute early," Doctor Carter replies. She takes a look at her watch. "It should be about time now."

"Oh."

"Um, hi," Jackson greets the two USAF officer, just outside the entrance to the metallic looking conference room. An airman also arrives. This time, it's Chief Master Sergeant Harriman.

"Now that everybody is here," Beck promptly starts the meeting. "Let get started. Carter?"

"Ever since SGC got started," Carter begins the briefing. "General Hammond has part of his staff searching everything stargate and extraterrestrial related. Finally, we hit a motherlode with these box of documents here, which was buried under 'strange weapons', which is why we didn't find it when Project Giza started. There's even an old video that shows people actually experimenting with the stargate way back in the 50s."

She plays the video on the flatscreen. Initially, it starts with three men rotating the stargate manually. After a couple of rotation and chevron lockings, the same puddle forms. Jackson and Harriman were awestruck, but Carter and Beck still retains their poker face. Soon after, a man in a diving suit walks through the gate, but then the puddle shortly disappears. Then video finishes playing.

"They thought the stargate was some kind of weapon and that the symbol on the gate are some kind of code. But seeing this man disappears made them conclude that this is a very expensive and impractical device used for disappearing matters."

"What?" Jackson yells in disbelief.

"Hindsight bia. We know what it does and how it works. They don't. Anyway, we got a presumably valid address off of it. This man is likely dead. But if we find his corpse, we'll bring him home. We don't leave anyone behind."

"What's his name?"

"Ernest Littlefield. Apparently, he is the fiancé of Doctor Langford before he disappears. He appears to have grasp at least part of the true purpose of the stargate." Jackson can feel his importance in the history book of the future dropping down a notch. He is not the first to decipher the Stargate, it seems. Arguably, his discovery is more important, since it actually leads to something meaningful rather than a failed experiment.

* * *

Control Room  
New Abydos  
A few minute later

* * *

The four members of the exploration committee reconvenes at the cramped control room.

"Harriman, start dialing," Colonel Beck orders. "I want a bot in there as soon we got a connection."

"Yes, sir!" To the relief of everyone, the stargate address works. A rover promptly moves into the puddle and then to the other side of the gate.

"Receiving telemetry! Look like we're inside a room and it doesn't look good. I am seeing lot of fractures and boulders. The DHD is up on a staircase. I am sending a micro-quadropter to see if it is intact." The team can see that the place is dark and slightly wet, and the place itself is made of stones. With the robot's microphone, it picks up lot of thunders, indicating a thunderstorm or heavy weather of some kind.

Soon, a quadropter hovers over the DHD. The orb in the middle is shattered, while many of the input symbols were broken off in pieces, becoming illegible. Some keys were missing altogether.

"Look like saving the Abydos DHD device is the smartest move we ever made, but before I send RED HORSE-" The Colonel freezes himself in mid-speech once he notices a figure, a human figure dressed in an old rubbery pant, but no clothes on his torso. The man is elderly and bald.

"My God, is that Littlefield?" Jackson asks unsurely.

"Quick, Harriman. Prop up that bastardized tablet." The tablet on the rover is already on its way up.

"Already did, sir."

"Are you some kind of intelligent machine?" the old man tries to question the robot.

"No, sir. Are you Ernest Littlefield? I am Colonel Harlan Beck of the United States Air Force."

"My god, had humanity transformed themselves into machines? Oh, yes, I am Doctor Littlefield, or what's left of my humanity, anyway."

"No, both machines are controlled by radio signals. Can you see us now?"

"Yes, I can. Two man and a woman." Littlefield suddenly drops down into his knee and into uncontrollable weeping. "I thought I would never see home again. Am I going crazy?"

"No, sir. You are not going crazy," the colonel assures him.

"Can I come back here through the circle?"

"That is inadvisable. Travels through the stargate are one way only. If you go through now, you will disappear forever."

"So, that is what you call this ring. A stargate. Fitting name. But how will I ever get home?"

"Don't worry about that. We have a working device that we will send. But before that, do you need food or medical attention?"

"Yes, I would like some real food. Medium rare steak with smashed potatoes. As for my health, I am in good health for an elderly man."

"Well, we don't have steak on hand, but I don't think you will dislike what you get. We'll send a doctor to make sure. Also, we will be sending combat engineers to access the safety of the building you are in. The device for getting you home will have to come later, since it's far away from the building. Doctor Jackson will be here talking to you for the rest of the 38 minutes time limit. Once the connection is cut, we'll dial in again. But please, stay on the staircase until the connection is back again. If you're caught in the whirlpool stemming from the gate, you are dead. Hang on tight."

"Just human contact is good enough," Littlefield replies, still weeping joyously. Shortly after, a woman comes through the stargate, dressed in a full hazmat suit with a medical kit on one hand.

"Hi, I am Doctor Janet Fraiser, MD, and a captain of the USAF. The reason I am in this suit is so that you don't die of any diseases you might catch from me. I'll be doing a medical checkup."

"A human being...an actual live one...!" Littlefield hugs the doctor tightly, squeezing the poor lady as much as he could.

Meanwhile, more hazmat suited figures and quadropters emerge from the gate. Both men and machines disperse into the surrounding.

"You can stop hugging me now," she orders the elderly man. Realizing that he has overstay his hug, Littlefield lets go.

A lighting strikes the building and lets out a thunderous roar.


	10. Chapter 9: Discovering Heliopolis Part 2

**Chapter 9: Discovering Heliopolis Part 2**

* * *

Stargate Base  
New Abydos  
February 18, 2008

* * *

Hot streams of water rain down upon the skin of an elderly man.

"Hot water!" Littlefield shouts happily. Now he knows he's not dreaming. How can his brain knows what hot water feels like after so many years being isolated from civilization? Of course, he is an old man now, probably entering his twilight years. After 50 years of tormenting isolation, he deserves the respite, and now he can die a happy man. But, what about Catherine? No, he can't think about that, not now.

After about twenty minutes or so, he turns off the shower fixture and heads over to his towel and clothing. He takes a look at the plain white t-shirt and gray pants. It doesn't seem exotic or strange at all. Did fifty years not change what people wear at all, or is the clothing provided to him were a courtesy? Nonetheless, he better get dressed quickly or the young soldier outside will worry.

"Airman, I am ready to meet Colonel Beck."

"Follow me this way, sir." Littlefield follows the man in the immaculately clean building which seems to be made of mostly stainless steel.

"How old is this place?" the elder inquires the airman.

"Only about a month old, sir."

* * *

Heliopolis  
At the very same time

* * *

Two things that Daniel Jackson notices about the military. One, is that they love to build things, very fast. He notices that with the base back on earth, and on New Abydos. It isn't any different here on this particular planet. Or maybe he's just mistaken? After all, SGC is a very efficient organization that is capable of getting anything it needs, barring concerns about secrecy. He doubts other part of the military institution would be similarly efficient. The other characteristic he notices about the military is their love of robots. They literally never walk anywhere without first sending in a robotic scout of some kind, either flying or land-based. Even now, there're drones on New Abydos and Heliopolis that does nothing but flying overhead where they are. Prudent? He supposes so. The drones did manage to spot those flying jet things before it make food of either humans or the camels(Mastadge) they brought to New Abydos.

But that's not why he's here. He has works to do, especially before the RED HORSE folks makes a mess of the archeological context in their drive to preserve this castle. He pans his camcorder slowly over the four pieces of writing. Littlefield hypothesizes these are actually the rosetta stones for four different species or civilizations. At least those four rosetta stones don't look like any of the writings that belong to Ra's race.

Jackson tries to recognize the four writings on the wall. Nope, no luck. Wait? The second writing here with its rune looks like Norse. He tries to read it.

"We...fourth...place." Wait a minute, did alien visit Scandinavia too and seed the Norse language? He hyperventilates at the discovery.

"Are you ok?" A nearby soldier asks in concern.

"Yeah, I am ok." Jackson quickly calms himself down with some breathing exercises he pick up during his stay in India.

He definitely need to put in words to Hammond about recruiting more archeologists, linguists, and translators relating to the Norse. Again, he squints his eyes on the rest of the remaining three unknown language. No dice. Time to move on to the next archeological item.

He moves on to the object in the middle of the room. After starring a bit at the device, he pushes the red button in the middle. Abruptly, a projection lights up, showing hundreds of orbs with smaller orbiting circles. From what Littlefield had told him, this device shows the periodic tables as well in details the property of every elements. He pushes one of the smaller button on the devices. It zooms in one of the element. This only brings blank incomprehension to Jackson, as he only have a small inkling of chemistry that he learnt from his college and high school days.

"Well, I guess I'll leave it to Carter. Even if this isn't her speciality, she knows who will knows." Jackson jots down a reminder in his journal to talk to Carter about this.

"Doctor?" another soldier asks.

"What is it?"

"We got the building stabilized so the building should not experience any further cave-in, at least a very reduced probability of having cave-ins. Then there's the whole issue about the cliff that the castle is situated on. Frankly, with enough storms, this place will fall into the sea below."

"Are we in danger with the next storm?"

"No. It should last several more storms."

"Can we save this place?"

"Yes. In the short term, we can spray a kind of concrete mixture to protect the cliff for a while. As for longer term, we need to dump lot of rocks and dirts next to the cliff. We can't bring heavy equipments here, so the best we can do is use GVCS modular tractors."

"Great. So I am assuming that you guys will use this as a FOB?"

"It isn't ideal sir, but it's better than endangering New Abydos, our new protectorate/colony. At least until we can find another FOB. It's an important archeology site."

"I hope it isn't a trend that everytime a new planet is discovered, it is automatically a planet of great importance."

"I hope not, sir."

"I am a civilian Doctor, not your CO. You can call me Jackson."

"Yes, sir," the soldier says reflexively.

"Well, just make sure you take video of everything, including the drone. Also, I want all Lidar, sonar, drone videos, etc of this place. Priority number one is saving this place so we have something to study, rather than nothing at all."

"Yes, sir," the soldier repeats what he said last time. Jackson sighs at the habit, making notes to never waste time telling soldiers not to "sir" him again.

Jackson gets back with his team to further catalogue the findings. The RED HORSE soldiers do their best not to to touch anything important while they work on fixing the building from collapsing. Thus, a cacophony of noises is produced as tractors and machineries powers through the site around the clock. 

* * *

Stargate Base  
New Abydos

* * *

"You're a captain in the military?" Littlefield blurts out.

"Yes, I am," Carter replies calmly. "What do you think?"

"Oh, um. I don't disapprove," Littlefield responds nervously. "In fact, my fiancé gave me the advices I need to open the stargate. So, um, I suppose it's not a stretch that a woman such as yourself ends up in this position."

"You never thought about this?"

"No, not at all."

"I don't know how to deal with someone who is in cultural shock, even if a man is as respectful as you."

"No, no. It's no problem at all. In my travels, I dealt with many societies, primitive and sophisticated. Read many novels about strange civilizations and their strange customs. I can deal with it."

"I got a surprise for Doctor Littlefield," Beck announces, standing behind the doctors. The Captain and Doctor Littlefield turns back to see the officier.

"It's me," an old woman says.

"Catherine, is that you?" Littlefield inquires.

"I am sorry, have you two known each other?" Carter questions.

"Yes, Littlefield is my fiancé." Littlefield approaches the old woman and then suddenly stops in his track.

"You can hug me. I never married or had children," Catherine assures. Upon hearing this, Littlefield embraces Langford.

"Where do we go?"

"Anywhere you want to go, my love."

"You really mean it?"

"Does it matter? Earth changed a lot in 50 years. I am sure it will be strange everywhere you go."

"Earth is still home, so I want to go there sooner or later. For now, I want to see the settlement of this planet."

With an airman to escort the couple, the two walks to a makeshift restaurant to have their first meal in many decades together.

* * *

Stargate Base  
Area 52, Earth  
February 19, 2008

* * *

"So, Jackson wants more Norse related specialists because he had discovered discernible Norse writings on this planet we dubbed Heliopolis?"

"Yes, General Hammond. He also requests that we should get specialists for every major civilizations on Earth. We couldn't identify the other writings on Heliopolis, but it doesn't hurt for us to cover our bases."

"Well, whatever Jackson needs, Jackson gets. After all, he rediscovered the stargate in the first place."

The general looks up a form on his computer. Once he finds the proper document, he prints it and begins to fill out the form for new employees. He grumbles quietly about the fact that he has to fill out the same damn thing on every form, like his name and rank. Major Davis comes to mind. Maybe he could task it to him to get rid of the excess paperwork?

The old soldier sends an email to his assistant to fetch Major Davis for him.


	11. Chapter 10: The Space Race Redux

**Chapter 10: The Space Race Redux**

-o0o-  
Von Braun High School  
Massachusett, Earth  
March 15, 2008  
-o0o-

"At the start of...Egyptian...death...Ra"

Eli Wallace stares at the wall behind the droning teacher. God, he's so Doctor Jackson when you need him? Oh right, he got booted out of being a substitute history teacher once the principal found out that he got booted out of academia. Then the man disappeared off the face of earth, probably committed suicide. At least, he made history interesting and alive in his brief tenure, as opposed to the uninspired lecture he's getting right now. Eli would trade for that crackpot any day of the week.

Switching to the view of his desk and an empty paper. Rather than writing down notes about the history of ancient Egypt, he tries to put inks into paper his latest mathematical thought.

"In...betrayed"

Obv-

"Sister...entombed"

Obvio-

"Takeover...not"

Obviousl-

"Succession..."

He groans loudly.

"Is something the matter?" The previously-droning teacher wonders.

"No," Eli replies quickly. "I am having problem keeping up with your lecture."

"Ok, I will repeat the last paragraph." Everyone else groans.

"Excuse me?!" The teacher's face turns slightly red. The bell rings. Eli Wallace and everyone in the class scurries their stuff in the good bag. "You will pay for your insolence! We have a quiz tomorrow, with no multiple choices!" the teacher threaten. Wallace feels only relief. As for the quiz, he can deal with that when the time comes. Now, he's just glad to get the heck out of that insufferable class. Before everyone glare at him, the teenager daftly makes his way to the doorway and into the hallway. Eying the exit, he makes a quick stride toward the door along with other students.

"Eli! Wait for me! I got something to show you!" one of his friend pleads. He slows down his movement.

"What is it Rob?"

"I got a youtube video you wouldn't believe." Eli looks at Rob with skepticism.

"Oh really?" Eli sarcastically says. "Is it another one of your cat video?"

"No, it's space related." Rob takes out his smartphone and gives it to Eli. With a push of a button, Rob plays the video.

"Really? It's just a speech about Osama bin Laden finally getting successfully offed."

"This is not the real meat of the speech. So wait a minute, pretty please?" Eli complies with Rob's wish.

"What? He's talking about space now? It's like he treated Bin Laden's assassination like an afterthought." Soon after, Eli's mouth is left slightly jaw-slacked as he further takes in the content. "He even close his speech with a Vulcan sign. Is this a dream? Am I dreaming?"

"No," Rob disconfirms, then he pinches Eli.

"Alright, alright. You made your point."

"Anyway, the entire country is going to be in an uproar tonight. There's already debate about the president's sanity and call for impeachment."

"But still? An actual space program? This is every trekkies', wookies', and gaters' dream come true!"

"Hold your horse, Eli. This might or might not happens."

"You're kidding me? I am going on the internet tonight and join one of Hayes' space support group." Later that evening, instead of playing the newest MMO to come out on the market, Eli looks up everything related to the presidential speech.

-o0o-  
Kremlin  
Moscow, Earth  
At the very same time  
-o0o-

"What do you mean the president may not be initiating an arm race?"

"If I may say so, Mr. President," the militarily dressed man begins. "We don't know if the president is insane, entirely serious, or he's looking to start an arm race that will ruin Russia."

"Does it has anything to do with the disappearing containers at Area 52?"

"Our analysts are trying their best to analyze the connection, if any, exists. We're diverting our assets to Area 52 as soon as possible."

"Colonel Chekov, I hope for your sake and the sake of this country, we will soon find out exactly what it is."

-o0o-  
Zhongnanhai  
Beijing, Earth  
Some time later  
-o0o-

"So, the White House had decided on their '5-years' plan of military and economic growth," the General Secretary concludes. "From his very sincrere rant on television, it must be true."

"But-"

"It is a clear effort to counter our rising economic might. We shall endevor to do the same with our fledging space program."

"But-"

"What?"

"Have you consider this man is trying to bankrupt us by goading us into this program." The General Secretary looks at his advisor skeptically.

"Nonsense. Sooner or later, we are bound to start a massive program of some kind. Space is a good bet as any."

-o0o-  
Élysée Palace  
Paris Earth  
At the very same time  
-o0o-

"Questions had been called about the president's sanity..."

CLICK

"Bah. He will probably get booted out of office and nothing will come out of it," the French president thinks to himself. With that utterance, he makes no further thought about the president for the whole evening.

-o0o-  
A Very Nice Hotel  
London, Earth  
At the very same time  
-o0o-

In a very nice four star accommodation, a computer beeps. Quickly, a man gets out of bed and dresses himself with the clothing left on the floor. Looking over the message, he furrows his forehead.

"What's the message," a smooth sultry voice enquires.

"If I have to tell you, I have to kill you," he deadpans. "Long story short, I'll have to leave soon."

"Oh, I wish you can stay here a little longer."

Opening the closet, he spots several identical suits. He yanks one out at random and begin changing in the bathroom.

"Don't forget your very expensive watch."

"I won't."

Not a moment too soon after getting into his suit, the computer beeps again. The man once again takes a look at the message. Area 52? Disappearing containers? Presidential sanity? What a strange assignment.

"I see you when I am back in London," the man parts as he holds his laptop/suitcase. The woman frowns, upset that this fine specimen have left the room.


	12. Chapter 11: Wakeup Call

**Chapter 11: Wakeup Call**

-o0o-  
The Jackson Home  
New Abydos  
April 3, 2008  
-o0o-

It is dusk, as one star dips below the horizon, another rises from the horizon elsewhere, marking both the dawn and sunset. This is when the majority of people on the planet starts their day. This is no exception for the Jackson family.

Waking up early, Sha're cooks some breakfast, using both local fare and food imported from Earth. A light sandwich for Skaara for when he inevitably wakes up late and a hearty meal for the rest of the family. Once done cooking food, she decides to visit her brother's room. Today is a very important day for Skaara, which is why she is carrying a bucket of cold water in her hand.

Sha're watches over her little brother, with his dreadlocks hairs spread across the pillows and his arms dangling over the bed. He's always such a messy person, even when sleeping. On time, the alarm clock squawks loudly. Skaara stirs in his bed a little, but refuses to wake up. Sha're shuts down the alarm and proceed to splashes cold water over his head.

"Whoa! What's that for?" Skaara complains bitterly.

"Once again, you slept through the alarm clock."

"Worst invention ever," he scowls at the alarm.

"You wouldn't want to be late for militia duty." The sister leaves his room.

"Oh shoot!" Skaara changes quickly into his BDU, grabs his sandwich, and heads for the nearest bicycle pool. Once he acquires a bicycle, he cycles through the street. He can see the growth of bamboo-like materials that has penetrated the city's aesthetic. It had changed from collated mess of brownish tents to metalistic rectangle boxes, and now into taller rectangle bamboo yellow boxes, all in the span of a few months. Then he passes a checkpoint. The soldiers guarding it pays no concern, letting him through. Finally he stops at a bike pool nearby a military compound, which surrounded by a metalistic landscape of rectangle buildings. From there, he walks on foot to a building clearly labeled Shooting Range.

"You're right on time," one of his friend informs Skaara.

"I guess I should thanks my sister for throwing cold water on me." The young militiaman smirks.

"My brother did that to me too. Looks like we share the same sleeping habit. Anyway, are you ready for the qualification test?"

"If-"

An earth solider walks out of an office near the trainees. He sports a beret, a headwear that uniquely signifying him to be a member of the United States Army Special Forces.

"PREPARE," the green beret abruptly yells in English. It is one of the few phrases that the Abydonian militiamen all learnt. The two young men along with other trainees scrambles for the armory. Equipped with their M-16 and ammo, they head toward their firing positions. The green beret walks the length of the hallway, inspecting each Abydonian for the slightest infraction. It could be the gun safety toggled off, or a missing case of ammo, or a slight misalignment in firing position. It doesn't matter.

"FAIL!" The green beret kicks the sole of Skaara's left boot. He continues his inspection. "FAIL!" Then he walks some more. "FAIL!" Finally, the green beret finishes his inspection. Seven fails. Skaara gulps. No matter who fails, the punishment is always applied to the group rather than the individuals.

"RESET!" The soldiers scramble back to the armory and disgorge their equipments. Inspection follows to see if they are stored properly. Three fails.

"YOU! YOU! YOU!" The green beret chooses at randomly, rather than the soldiers responsible. The three abydonians go into the armory to fix the misplacement.

"PREPARE!" The militiamen repeat their mad scrambles, only to see that it is still an imperfect run. They repeat this process until they finally pass inspection. That allows them to move on to the next stage.

"SHOOT AT WILL!"

The abydonians discharge their weapons on the range. The American soldier then inspects each target. More announcements of failure come, since a few of the results are less than satisfactory.

"RESET!" Once more, they head into the armory. An imperfect run with one failure, which means more delay before they can start again.

"OVER! OVER! OVER!" The officer announces.

Skaara groans in frustration. The training day is over. He looks to his friend on the right of him.

"There's always tomorrow," his friend reassures. Abruptly, the klaxon blares.

"PREPARE!" the green berets shout. The company automatically carries out their order in unison. The instructor disappears into his office.

-o0o-  
Command Center  
New Abydos  
At the very same time  
-o0o-

"Where are my fricking tanks and strykers?" Colonel Beck shouts angrily. His eyes are focused on a screen showing a massive blob on the green landscape moving at a great speed.

"Sir, Hammond and his staff are still trying to-"

"Forget secrecy, I want my tanks yesterday!" The vehement yell of his CO nearly knocks off Harriman off his seat.

"Yes sir, I'll relay your request." Harriman picks up a phone and relay Beck's order to the control room. The monitor shows the blob is picking up speed, with dirt clouds becoming larger.

"Have the drones fire warning shots." Soon after missiles streak across the sky north of the walled settlements, hitting the dirt just in front of the massive rhino-like herds. Instead of turning around, the herd speeds up.

"Fuck! Fire at will! Get all the rifle companies and humvees up north!" Once again, the sky lights up with more missile streaks, this time slamming into the bodies of the rhinos. Several dies, obstructing the pathway, but the rhinos merely reroute around the immobile bodies. Next, comes the artillery rounds that disrupts the ground the rhinos are moving on.

A phone call comes in, in which Harriman promptly answers the phone.

"Sir? A major from the firing range. He wan-", Harriman tries to inform, but the colonel cuts him off.

"Just get the militia there!"

-o0o-  
Building B  
New Abydos  
At the very same time  
-o0o-

The green beret walks out of his office at an urgent pace.

"YOU!" the green beret points at Skaara. "SPEAK ENGLISH?"

"Yes," Skaara replies nervously.

"Then I want you to tell your men to follow me up north. Safety off." With quick instructions from Skaara, the men organize themselves into marching formation. As best as they could, Skaara's rifle company follows the major as they march as fast as they could to the frontline. Quickly, they deposit themselves onto the long trench with the other troops as artilleries and mortars relentlessly soften the herds up north. Finally, enemy herds emerge from the ridge of the next hill.

"On my mark. 3...2...1...FIRE AT WILL!" the major commands.

The defenders from three different rifle companies discharge their weapons in unison, quickly followed by just arrived humvees' 50 caliber machine gun and rockets. Grenades from automatic launchers explode, spreading the shrapnels into the skins of the herd. Bullets from the M16 rifles deform viciously into the heads of the rhinos, causing creatures to sway into the path of the other members of the herd, creating collisions. From those collisions, several thousand pounds of kinetic energy becomes immovable obstacle.

Meanwhile, the 50 caliber bullets penetrates deeply into the skulls of the remaining rhinos, smashing the brains that control the movements. Momentum takes over, but only enough for several meters forward. Some rhinos got through. Several got their feet stuck in the trench, crushing or pinning the unlucky soldiers who happen to inhabit those particular spots. Those who manages to cross the trench immediately comes under fire of the towers' crossfire. But the trench is very wide, the grassland too open, and placement of troops too haphazard. More rhinos pour in.

"FIRE ON MY POSITION!" The green beret major yells into his radio.

"But-" a voice from the radio tries to reply.

"JUST FUCKING DO IT!"

Not a moment too soon, artillery rounds start landing dangerously near the trench, stopping the rhinos point blank. Skaara and everyone else stop sticking their head out of the trench, altogether, terrified of the artillery rounds that land so close to them. Amazingly, none of the rounds stuck anybody.

Finally, with the bodies of the rhinos piling up near or at the trench location, flanked by forests, the rhinos' movement slows down to a standstill. The troops charge over the freshly dead bodies, pouring more bullets into the herds until the rhinos turn back to whence they come from. The humans realizing that the rhinos are running away, break into a very loud cheers.

As usual, drones fly overhead troop positions. From there, the camera transmits information back to the command center, where Colonel Beck and his staff is listening in. For several minutes, Colonel Beck looks at the massacre with worried eyes.

"Casualty reports?" the commanding officer finally says.

"27 confirmed dead. 133 injured. 1 wrecked humvee," one of the airman replies.

"Damn it. This planet is no paradise."


	13. Chapter 12: First Contact Part 1

**Chapter 12: First Contact Part 1**

-o0o-  
FOB  
Alpha Site, Alpha Planet  
April 13, 2008  
-o0o-

Alpha Planet is very much non-dangerous looking compared to New Abydos. It's still strange with the plant life using funky colors like yellow, red, or even blue. Other than that, there's no "trees" to speak of, although there are some plants that possess tree like stems. All of which is very interesting to botanists, but O'Neill is no botanist. To him, plants are mere inanimate objects. He much rather learns about intelligent species on par with humans, or at least dealing with animal life. For some reason, Alpha Planet seems to lack both, which bores O'Neill to no end. Luckily for him, today the universe decides to obliges.

Colonel O'Neill fidgets as he looks at the monitor. He pushes some buttons and the joysticks of the xbox controller that's connected to it. The monitor pans over to more of those empty patches of "forest".

"Our drones always get the action, we get no action," O'Neill whines.

"You want to be Colonel Harlan 'Overkill' Beck?" O'Neill conjures to himself images of Beck gleefully storming a tiny base belonging to one of Ra's people with everything US military has at its disposal. His friend laughs maniacally as he relishes in the overkill of his enemy.

"Well, lieutenant Shepherd, I don't want to be in his position, as awesome he is. Obviously, he gets the cool toys in quantities, but I wouldn't want to deal with the faunas on New Abydos."

"Pools of gastric acid, fields of poisonous darts, super fast rhino herds, jet predators, jumping squids..."

"That's enough! I don't want to have nightmares."

"Beta three zero, do you copy?" The radio clacks.

"We copy," Shepherd replies.

"Come to the control room. You'll want to see what we got from the rover."

"Roger that. We'll be right there." The eight men team quickly packs up their gears.

-o0o-  
FOB Control Room  
-o0o-

"So, what we got here, airman?" O'Neill interrogate the gate technican.

"It looks like we entered some kind of museum," the airman speculates.

"Really?"

"Yeah, you can even see their version of historical planes mounted on the ceiling." A humanoid figure comes into view from the entrance.

"What is that? Zoom in." The airman pushes one of the control.

"Human?" O'Neill asks in surprise. From appearance, it looks to be a male of average height, brown eyes and short brown hairs, dressed in what looks like a vest covering over a white shirt, black pant, and polished leather shoes.

"Whatever it is, he's definitely human-looking and his dress don't look all that strange to me," Shepherd observes. The humanoid approaches the rover, looking very surprised, with his mouth opened.

"Get the tablet up," O'Neill orders. Soon, the tablet starts displaying images about the stargate. The human views the image for several minutes before running off.

A few minutes later, a group of humans gathers around the probe, staring at it. Voices can be heard. "Well, that was quick," one of the other member of O'Neill team comments.

"Please show them the warning about the stargate's dangerous whirlpools." The group steps back a little.

"Good thing they understand very clearly. Cut the connection and route a message to Earth via Heliopolis."

-o0o-  
Museum Entrance  
Unknown Planet  
Three Hours Later  
-o0o-

A crowd of journalists with their cameras surround the podium near the entrance to the museum that contains the stargate. They are only held back by a line of policemen, who stands sternly against the overexcited and frenetic crowd. A sharply dressed man steps up to the podium.

"Speaking for the Kelowna federal government, I am the minister of science, Jonas Quinn," the man introduces himself.

"Is it true that aliens with ray guns had entered the compound?" one of the journalist blurts out before the science minister is able to explain what's happening.

"No. That is an unfound allegation," he replies firmly. The journalists quiet down. "I would like to state a couple of facts that we know about this situation. There are no aliens, and yes, the ring of life did activate. Our scientific team is currently investigating the artifact."

"Bullshit!" a voice accuses. The crowd launches itself into critical questioning against the Kelowna government and the science minister himself. Quinn sighs in his abject failure to mislead the public.

Afraid of the journalists that are surely going to hound him, Quinn rushes toward the entrance before the police line collapses.

"Hey, where the frak you're going?" one of the journalist shouts after him, but he's already inside the building.

-o0o-  
Stargate HQ  
Area 52, Earth  
Three hours later  
-o0o-

"What do we know about those humans or humanoid, Doctor Jackson?" General Hammond starts the meeting.

"From what I have been able to tell," Jackson responds. "They are speaking a variation of ancient Greek. "

"So, they are humans, descendent of the Greeks," Hammond infers.

"Yes, probably."

"So, do we have a plan, ambassador Faxon?"

"Yes, well, sorta," Faxon stutters. "I mean, no. There were some consideration about the diaspora of humans amongst the stars, but it got pushed all the way down in planning priority. Our thought is that contact with non-humanoid aliens are a much more likely probability. Evolution would probably produce a wide variety of intelligent alien species, of which humanoids are just one amongst many. We are still writing and planning out those protocols, sir."

"So, our failure is that we were too imaginative," Hammond deduces.

"Yes, that is about correct," Faxon confirms in an embarrassed tone.

"Do we have a first contact protocol for humans?"

"No, only a tentative outline."

"Have it done within 48 hours. I'll contact the president to inform him of the news. Doctor Jackson, I want you and your team to start analyzing the voices. We'll need translators. In the meantime, initiate standard first contact software on the rover."

Museum Meeting Room

Unknown planet

Just a few minutes later

Quinn paces incessantly around the room as his assistants look through books and documents. A man enters the room.

"Minister Quinn?" the man addresses. "The gate opened again. The television on the probe starts showing new images."

"What does it say?"

"I don't know, but it looks like the machine wants us to touch its television screen."

"Really?"

"Yes, who will do it?"

"I will. I got several degrees from several fields. If I can't figure out what it wants, no one will."

-o0o-  
Stargate HQ  
Area 52, Earth  
Several Hours Later  
-o0o-

"What do we got from the rover?" Hammond asks Doctor Jackson again in as many hours.

"It looks like they have fairly decent understanding of mathematical fields, on par with the 1950s, along with the fact that they used the same number system as ours. We also manage to infer that their planetary cycle is similar to ours, which is about 26 hours in a day, among with information about stars constellation in their night sky."

"Captain Carter will be very pleased."

"That's not all. They also attempt to communicate the rover without our instructions, inferring correctly that the rover is constantly recording. We manage to build a basic dictionary of objects to their word, such as the wheel, meat, and water."

"This is getting better by the second," Hammond comments.

-o0o-  
Official Residence of the Andrai Government  
Unknown Planet  
At the very same time  
-o0o-

"So, you're telling me that aliens visited the museum of Kelowna," a man questions incredulously. The man begins to hyperventilate.

"Sir? Sir, are you alright?"

"Yes, I am fine. Getting my footing. Tell me more about those aliens, if they exist."

"Yes, First Minister. They traveled though the object known as the Ring of Life. Not only that, it is likely that they are humans." The minister takes a moment to think about it.

"Sir?"

"A moment."

"If you don't mind, we'll need to get the cabinet in the room."

"Do that." The man walks to a phone nearby and starts relaying a message.

"Do you know what this mean?" The minister blurts out. "The Kelownans will be able to influence the perception of those aliens!"

"I don't catch your drift," the man replies back confused. He is still on the phone.

"My assistant, it means that the Kelownans are in a position to influences the aliens with their worldview, favoring the Kelownan agenda. Get me that phone. We're going to tell our ally and our military to go on a war footing. Ain't no way I am letting the Kelownans hog all the aliens' attention."

The red phone on the minister desk starts ringing.

"Look like our ally have the same thought."

-o0o-  
Official Residence of the Kelownan Government  
Unknown Planet  
Thirty minutes later  
-o0o-

"First Minister Valis, we are detecting large number of bombers and fighters near our borders," a man informs.

"Likely to be related to our contact with those alien. Scramble the planes and mobilize the troops. Also, round up all the known spies. We'll try to delay and confuse our enemies as much as possible. If those aliens are amicable, we may be able to get them on our side."


	14. Chapter 13: First Contact Part 2

**Chapter 13: First Contact Part 2**

-o0o0o0o0o0o-  
Stargate Command HQ  
Area 52, Earth  
April 20, 2008  
-o0o0o0o0o0o-

Thanks to the recent development of the containerized base deployment system, meeting rooms on any off world or on Earth looks pretty much the same anywhere. This time though, the meeting room is situated on Earth, in the Area 52 base that is home to Stargate Command. In that particular room, a Colonel and medal honor recipient, named Jonathan "Jack" O'Neill, happens to be sitting in his seat, waiting for a very important meeting to start, that is, to discuss first contact with another world. To meet a small society like the Abydonians is one thing, it is quite another to meet an entire civilization.

In the meantime, O'Neill squirms in his seat as he put down the starting scribbles in the notebook of his, labeled "Introduction to Gate Warfare and Tactics".

"Hiding the coordinates of the address you retreat through is paramount to the continued security of Earth and her colonies," he writes. "Concealment of the rotating symbols on the gate and the DHD can be achieved through smokescreens, flashbangs, paint over, or hiding the gate. Sooner or later, such measures will fail. As such, we have..."

"O'Neill, what are you doing here?" Jackson prompts.

"Oh, just writing my tactical manual for gate warfare," O'Neill responds truthfully.

"You do realize that this is a secure meeting room, right?"

"Yes, Danny boy. I am not stupid."

"So, why are you here?"

"To squeeze my team into this diplomatic mission, of course!"

"Your team does only exploration duty, not diplomatic duty."

"In the future, not all explorations will be a little 'drone' and 'rover' control missions. We may run into natives or have to do diplomacy on the spot," O'Neill counters. "Thus, my team need real experience, even if we're going to be observing ambassador Faxon."

"Can't you just read diplomatic reports and books?"

"For a triple PhD, you are an idiot. There are only certain things you gain from experience. For example, I am writing this book based on war games and fake combat sessions, but I know we'll end up rewriting the book outright as soon we experience actual combat. Just like you learn better when you're forced to speak to people in foreign countries in real time."

"Meeting is in an hour or so. We'll be waiting quite a bit."

"That's fine. I have a book to write anyway." O'Neill gets back into his notebooks to put down more words.

"As such, we have devised several procedures to reduce the fallout from address compromise," O'Neill completes. "As you may already know, we do explorations only from FOBs or from an empty planet. We also take great pain in our procedure to minimize stargate address knowledge, which results in only a select few knowing the address of Earth." That gives him an idea.

"Danny boy, do you know the address of Earth?" O'Neill asks.

"Uh, no. I destroyed my address notebook when we first started the program. I was also tested to see if I remember any address, but it comes up negative. Why you ask?"

"Just curious."

The two men stops talking altogether, waiting for the others to arrive.

-o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o-  
Museum  
Unknown Planet  
At the very same time.  
-o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o-

Quinn looks at the tablet. He speaks whatever word that closet match the object on the screen. Then he uses a stylus to write down the word he speaks of, Afterward, he push a button on the bottom to move on to the next object. The tablet then shows him a new object. This time, it resembles a gun of some kind? "Gun," he says. Then he picks up his stylus and repeats the process as he done last time.

Whatever the world this rover comes from, it seems strangely familiar, with many of the same inventions and objects. There are televisions, radios, electricity, and so forth. Although, there are some inventions that his people never thought of. For example, there is a two wheel machine that is powered entirely by man. Ingenius and simple, he wonders why nobody has bother to come up with the invention. In this case, he can only marks them "Unknown" on the tablet.

The most fantastic device he ever saw, save the ring itself, were of course the television and machine in front of him. For one, the television attached to the machine don't need knobs or buttons and is infinitely interactive. The machine itself seems to be a combination of radio equipment, camera, automobile, and voice recorder integrated into a package that seems to imply an autonomous creature. A robot? Not too fantastical, but he couldn't for the life of him figures out how the mechanisms could mesh together into an intelligent automaton.

"Minister Quinn? Please step away from the machine," a commanding voice booms. The minister turns his attention to the beefy officer of the Kelnownan military.

"What for? On whose authority?"

"By the order of the Minister of Defense, you are to cease and desist messing with that machine until further notice."

"Hey! You can't do this to me! We are meeting our cousins lost-"

"Guards? Take him away." The guards shove Quinn away from the machine. The minister struggles anyway, kicking and shouting, until the soldiers deposit Quinn in the back of the museum along with the rest of the staff.

"What will we do now?" one of his employees ask.

"We are at the bottom of the ladder as far as authority is concerned," the boss replies grimly. "The Ministry of Science is now no longer officially involved. Go home and be with your family."

The crowd disperses into several directions. Some, including Quinn, take off their identifier pins and tags in the hope of avoiding being hounded by members of the press.

As for the minister himself, he walks in the direction to his home slowly and methodically, looking for any unruly groups that look to ambush him.

-o0o0o0o0o0o0o0-  
Stargate HQ  
Area 52, Earth  
Two hours later  
-o0o0o0o0o0o0o0-

"Faxon, are you sure you want to do this? Going to their world means that you are at the mercy of their host," Hammond warns. "Mounting a rescue may be impossible or sudicial if they have any tactical intelligence."

"What possible gain would be from them killing me or kidnapping me?" Faxon argues back. "For all they know, we could have spaceships that bombard their planet from orbit. From their perspective, it's best not to piss us off, assuming that they act rationally."

"Rationally," Hammond repeats. "Which is not exactly a guarantee."

"A risk I am willing to take, General. We need allies amongst the stars. Especially a heavily industrialized world that can trade with us. From what I have been told, it is difficult for you to cover up even your bullet requisitions, given that New Abydos continues to give our soldiers and the colonists hell."

"Fine, it's not up to me, anyway. I do insist, however, that you bring-" An airman enters the room.

"Gentlemen, you want to see this," the airman interrupts. With the USB drive already in his hand, the soldier pushes the USB drive into the local computer. The projector then lights up with the latest telemetry from the rover.

"It looks like Minister of Science got dragged away by the guards, with some protest. Since then, nobody takes his place to answer questions on the tablet," Jackson observes.

"Damn it," Faxon growls. "It means that the timeline for opening diplomatic relation got pushed back indefinitely."

"More time to plan and more time to analyze," Hammond counters.

"My team should already be analyzing as soon we received telemetry," Jackson notes. "We're close enough to write our first sentence in their language. It may or may not be grammatically correct, but I hope we'll get the gist across without offending them."

-o0o0o0o0o0o0o-  
Kelownan-Andraian border  
Unknown Planet  
Four hours later  
-o0o0o0o0o0o0o-

Soaring through the sky, Marc Hazman's fighter plane skirts near the border of his enemy, the hated Kelowna state. The state that bombed his city into the ground when he was just a child, destroying his family, and orphaned him. His fingers itch on the trigger, and he smiles in glee for the inevitable war that is to come, waiting for the Kelownan to carry out their aggression against his people or his ally. However, as blood thirsty he is, he couldn't bring himself over the border to attack Kelowna. The air corp instills duty before everything else. Duty that not only instills complete obedience, but also preventing vengeance and killing. That is, until ordered. As a consequence, he rigidly sticks just outside the border.

But his eyes were tried, very tried. He nods off a little, and then he snaps back to full attention.

"Can't die or do something stupid," he mutters to himself. "Lords know why we only get five hours every night for the past few days."

Dutiful as always, he talks into his radio, "Hotshot, you are a little too close to the border, copy?" The plane on to the right moves left a little.

Then, he nods off again, only this time for a minute. His plane veering into the right, crossing the border into Kelnownan territory.

"Sir? Sir? Sir?" panicked voice sounds out. Several bursts screech across his canopy, making several loud burps. Marc wakes up and rapidly move toward the right.

"What are you doing!" the radio screams. "Left! Left! Left!" Marc obeys just in time.

"Oh god, I almost fucked up," he replies.

But sleep deprivation continues to stalk Marc and his comrades.


	15. Chapter 14: First Contact Part 3

**Chapter 14: First Contact Part 3**

-o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o-  
**Kelownan Subway Bunker**  
**Unknown Planet**  
**April 21, 2008**  
-o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o-

Things didn't exactly go to plan for Quinn. He never went home. Instead, a klaxon sounds, and Quinn reacts to it automatically, looking for the nearest shelter, which is a few meters away from him. By coincidence, his assistant also ends up with him.

There, deep inside a concrete bunker beneath the street, Quinn and his assistant hurdles together along with everyone else. Old, young, woman or man, dirty or clean, it doesn't matter. The only thing that Quinn didn't see is the uniformed men in the military.

"Do you think those aliens are friendly?" his assistant asks.

"I don't know, Cyr," Quinn admits. "They are probably humans or at least imitating humans."

"If they are friendly, I hope to meet them."

"I do too, but it may all be moot if we destroyed ourselves through nuclear war. I want freedom, but what does it matter if we can't even live to experience those freedoms?" Cyr grimes.

"There must be something we can do."

"There is nothing that I can do. All I can hope is that the leaders of our government come to their senses."

"Aren't you a leader of our government?"

"Excuse me? I am just a Minister of Science, fairly low on the totem I might add. The Defense Minister shoved me out of the museum just yesterday and there was no way I could say no."

"But your position and fame allows you some influence, right? Maybe if you could get to the right people, you could get the First Minister's ear." Quinn stares at the concrete wall for a minute. Cyr glances at Cyr, seeing that Quinn is left in deep thought. She decides not to interrupt.

"No, I don't have that kind of connection, but I do know a way to influence everyone on the planet at large. This way we can get everyone to stand down, not just our own government."

"What's that?"

"A radio station. Despite the enemy governments' best effort, there are people around the world listening to our radio as we speak."

"How do you plan to get a radio station? You don't have any power over anybody, or do you know people in one of those radio station?"

"Easy. I lie. After all, they probably don't even know that I have no authority over anyone except our department."

-o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o-  
**Official Residence of the Kelownan Government**  
**Unknown Planet**  
**An hour later**  
-o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o-

"We want this object back in Andraian territory, where it belongs," says the man in front of the First Minister desk.

"Unacceptable," Valis rebukes. His face scrunches itself up into an angry expression. "The gate is on our territory when you secede your territory at the end of the great war twenty years ago."

"When we signed the treaty, we never said that all museum objects within your territory are automatically your."

"Ambassador, your people didn't claim that it was your until you realized the significance of the gate. What about the other museum objects that we 'stolen' from you? Do you want them back too?"

"Yes," the ambassador bullshits. A man in suit opens the door.

"First Minister Valis? We have a message for you," the man notifies the minister.

"A moment."

"We shot down three planes from the Tiranian federation," the messenger finally delivers. "What is your response?" Valis feels a gripping terror in his heart that soon migrate through the rest of his body. His body shivers. But then his mind triggers a powerful habit. Clam down. Observe. Analyze. Decide.

Why is the ambassador and his delegation here? Is this a beginning of a large scale attack? No. The Trianians wouldn't be that callous to attack their own ally. They would inform the Andraian to withdraw their First Minister to the embassy and then out of the country, which the Kelownan wouldn't do anything about, because Kelowna is a civilized nation. Plus, such callous attack would lead to the Trianians fighting a two front war. Three destroyed planes wouldn't make strategic sense. They would do a surprise attack with waves of fighters and bombers as well the use of a nuclear bomb. Thus, it isn't an attack. It's a mistake.

"Sir? The Trianian ambassador had just arrive." The First Minister looks at the ambassador and he blinks. The Trianian ambassador blinks back as well. Several minutes later, nothing happens. No nuclear attack, no bombs, and no spilt blood. A wave of relief flows over the First Minister's body.

"What about your response, sir?" The messenger asks again.

"Nothing. We do nothing."

-o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o-  
**FOB**  
**Alpha Site**  
**Thirty minute later.**  
-o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o-

"Ok. I composed a simple message to see if we can speak to Quinn," Jackson states his action. "I think that's their science minister. You want to do the honor, Ambassador Faxon?"

"Thank you. I will. But before that, what the message is supposed to read?"

"We wish to speak with Science Minister Jonas Quinn as soon as possible," Jackson read his message. "This machine will turn itself off without the battery." Faxon pushes a button on the gate control panel. The gate rotates.

-o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o-  
**Museum Room**  
**Unknown Planet**  
**Around the same time.**  
-o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o-

Lieutenant John Willis had stood guard over the gate for the last few days while Science Minister Quinn and his assistants answer questions for the machine. It was an exciting time for Willis because he got to see the various machines, dishes, and buildings from whatever alien world they come from. Of course, the paranoid Defense Minister's men had to go in there and ruin his day by kicking off Quinn and his scientists. Now, Willis only stares at the gate and the machine for hours on end, boring himself into insanity. He begins to nod off to sleep.

The gate starts rotating. Quickly, Willis snaps back into attention and scoots his chair backward, not wanting to get caught in the whirlpool. The puddle forms and then a canister goes through. Willis and his men points their guns at the canister.

"Stop! I think it's a battery," Willis guesses.

"It didn't explode, at least," another soldier quips. "What should we do with the battery?"

"I don't know. I guess we should ask whoever in charge here?"

"Who would that be? Quinn or the Defense Minister?"

The machine loudly beeps. A new message displays on the television screen.

"What does it say?" Willis takes a look at the tablet on top of the rover.

"We demand to speak with Science Leader Jonas Quinn immediately. Without the battery, the machine will turn off." Willis interprets. "I don't care who we speak to, as long the message get passed to the brass."

-o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o-  
**Official Residence of the Kelownan Government**  
**Unknown Planet**  
**Ten minute later**  
-o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o-

Outside the window of the palace, a large crowd can be seen gathering with their picket signs.

"We want what?"

"The GATEROOM!"

"And when do we want it?"

"NOW!"

And so the message repeats. Meanwhile, inside the palace, the First Minister bickers with the two ambassadors. As the dialogue proceeds, the conversation gradually increases in decibels to the point of shouting.

"This is an impossible demand!" Valis shouts. "Must I remind you that I didn't go to war on your asses?"

"Secede your territory you won from us in the last war, or give us back the gate," the Andraian ambassador reiterates. "We can always walk away and let you fester for a while."

"You-" A loud screech spreads across the room.

"It's from the radio," Valis conjectures.

"This is Science Minister Jonas Quinn of the Kelownan Government, speaking only in my voice and opinion, and not of my government," Quinn announces. "By the gods, you are all frakking idiots! We are on a brink of nuclear annihilation all because of some fuss with who gets to talk to the aliens. That's not even the real reason. No, it is because-"

The messenger bursts in again.

"What is it this time?"

"Sir, the machine wants to speak to Jonas Quinn only."

"Only?"

"From what the guard down at the door says, it's a hard requirement."

"Hard requirement?"

"Yes. Without Jonas Quinn, the machine will shut down."

"Dear Zeus...Fetch Quinn from whatever blasted radio station and escort him to the gateroo-museum."

"That's not all, sir. They didn't know who is in command and they couldn't get in a phone call because of the traffic flooding the switch operation room. Heck, they didn't even bother with a paper message, figuring that the message is very urgent."

"I am in charge. Get me a dedicated phone to the museum, now." Valis looks at the two ambassador.

"As a sign of good faith, you may send an observer each to the gateroom. From what I just heard, they said Quinn is a hard requirement, and believe me, I wouldn't choose Quinn after his stunt on the radio." The First Minister scowls deeply. The two ambassadors take note and decide quickly to believe him.


	16. Chapter 15: First Contact Part 4

**Chapter 15: First Contact Part 4**

-o0o0o0o0o-  
Kelownan Broadcasting Corporation  
Unknown Planet  
A few hours after Quinn's speech  
-o0o0o0o0o-

"What do you want?" Quinn asks in a harsh voice, looking at the sharply dressed military officer.

"Come back to the museum," the officer states the reason. "Or the gateroom as the people are calling it now. The machine requires your presence to proceed. The guards say it is a mandatory requirement on the part of the aliens or else we won't be able to contact them again."

"Why would I trust or believe you?"

"Unfortunately, you have only my words to trust. But I do believe that imprisoning or executing you would do the opposite of what the government wants."  
"Which is?"

"Preventing this country further degenerating into societal collapse." Quinn glares at the officer for a moment.

"Alright. Let me broadcast what we are about to do so that this world won't blow up the moment we step outside the radio station." The officer maintains his unemotional demeanor as he waits for Quinn to broadcast his message.

"Let go," Quinn orders. "You too, Cyr. We need everyone of scientific expertise to analyze the data coming out of the rover." The group then enters a car in a military convoy just outside the radio station, Nearby, two opposing crowds gather to see or jeer at Quinn.

"QUINN! QUINN!" The gigantic pro-Quinn crowd chants. They throw their glitters and confetti at the convoy.

"TRAITOR! TRAITOR!" The much smaller anti-Quinn crowd chants. They throw their eggs and molotov cocktails. This time, the military police retaliates with their clubs and shields. Not because it is an attack on Quinn, but because it is an attack on the convoy, period.

Quinn's vehicle cruises through the street of the Aegae, a brick and concrete landscape that consists of numerous art deco skyscrapers and small brick stores crammed together. But that isn't all that Quinn and his company see. They can see the broken window, smashed poles, blinking traffic lights, locked doors, spilled trashcans, along many others. Of course, riot police and military personnels are in force, patrolling the street and preventing further deterioration. Occasionally, they see looters robbing stores with impunity. The convoy does nothing to stop them. Quinn's stomach further tighten at those sights.

Finally, the convoy arrives at the museum, just like the officer say he would. Quinn opens the door and marches straight to the gate, hoping that it isn't a trap. Cyr quickly catches up after she realized what just happened. The officer merely walks slowly toward the gateroom, as if the spectre of a nuclear holocaust isn't there at all.

Afterward, his employees along with new scientists begin to tickle in. Quinn looks at the new message on the tablet.

"We wish to speak with Science Minister Jonas Quinn as soon as possible," Quinn read the message correctly. "This machine will turns itself off without the battery."

"So, the message carried by word of mouth got garbled up," the officer conjectures. "We thought you are required, but that is a mere suggestion. I guess that's a good thing too."

"I am sorry. I didn't get your name?"

"Major Ron Chapman."

"Actually sir, I believed I contribute to the mistaken impression with the initial impression," Willis admits.

"It's not too bad of a translation. At the very least, it didn't get us killed," Quinn quips. "In any case, it looks like it wants more information before further talks. I believed it is trying to get a better picture of how our written language works." As he done before the guards took him away, Quinn continuously interacts with the machine, prying information from and sending information out to the aliens. Quickly obsessed, he works through the night before changing shift with another researcher.

-o0o0o0o-  
Official Residence of the Andraian Government  
Unknown Planet  
A day after Quinn's return to the gate.  
-o0o0o0o-

Inside the ornate office for the head of the Andraian government, a general speaks with urgency and desperation. His face racks with worry and anixety.

"First Minister, it's best that we gradually ease our troop and plane movement so that we reduces the possibility of war," the general tries to counsel.

"Trickery! The Kelnownan are doing it so that they get the aliens to themsleves. Keep the planes up in the air," the First Minister barks. "We may need to go nuclear at any point in time." Clearly, the First Minister had become a madman.

"I refuse," the general replies firmly. His frame tighten up for the blowback.

"What the frak?" the minister exclaims. He couldn't believe what he's hearing.

"I refuse to be responsible for killing all of us," the general states clearly and concisely.

"For the love of the gods, arrest him for treason and court martial him." But before the guards throw him into jail, the general raises his sidearm as quickly as he could and fire straight at the minister. Somehow, he missed. The guards retaliate by shooting their own firearm. Riddled with bullets, the general dies where he stand, falling into the ground.

The minister stands in absolute shock. Then he quickly snaps back into focus. Frantically, he picks up his phone and attempts to dial. However, there is no tones from the phone. It's completely silent.

"The frak! They cut off the phone," he realizes too late.

"You are surrounded," a loudspeaker announces. "I repeat, you are surrounded. Surrender in ten minutes, or face the possibility of death." The security men look at each other. They walk out.

"What the frak are you doing?" The minister screechs at the deserters. "Traitors!"

"I rather die than face a phony trial put up by those Kelnownan lackeys," he declares. With no where to run, he knew that his days are numbered. Still, decides to fight.

The soon-to-be dead man hides behind the deck, taking out his submachine gun from one of the drawer, along with some earplugs. He cogs his ears and waits patiently for the attackers.

Ten minute later, soldiers deploy flashbangs and storm the room. The flashbang fails to stun the doomed minister. The minister jumps up and trigger his weapons in a blind rage. Despite the large burp of bullets that hit the other side of the room, he only manages to hit a man in his right arm. Despite the element of surprise, the ambush completely fails.

The soldiers strike back, showering the minister's chest with bullets. He falls back into his chair. There's now two corpses in the office. Finally, the coup against the minister is over.

Afterward, a general shoves the formerly vice-First Minister into the office of his slain leader, despite the crimson bloods that splattered the place.

"You are now the First Minister of Andrai," the general informs. "You can do anything you want, but if you so much as to order a plane near Kelownan territory, I will shoot you. Right now, order our military to demobilize." The new minister whimpers under the threat.

A group of soldier brings in a fresh phone along with the telephone lines. The new minister quickly complies with the order. Meanwhile, the soldiers who brought in his telephone lines, drag the two corpses outside the office, sating the office, staining the carpet with crimson blood. Realizing that the dignity of the First Minister has been violated, the First Minister, who has no backbone in regard to demobilization, jumps into action.

"You three!" the minister barks. "Clean up the frakking mess you created, or I have you court martialed and your rank and pay stripped! And it better not happens again."

Impressed by the backbone of the newly appointed minister, the general gives supporative glares at the soldiers, who then quickly runs to get cleaning supply.

-o0o0o0o-  
Kelownan Government Palace  
Unknown Planet  
Thirty hours later  
-o0o0o0o-

After the coup in Andrai, Kelnownan's enemies demobilize all their military component. In response to the good gesture, Kelnowna demobilizes as well. Chaos still wages on the planet, but at least it's not under the spectre of an apocalypse. The de-escalation finally gives First Minister Valis some breathing room. Which inside his office, he does take.

The minister slumps into his chair. He thinks about the last week of hell that he just went through. Then there's that bastard Quinn, a newly appointed Minister of Science, who managed to outmaneuver the First Minister in the game of politics, a field he is supposed to be the master of. But he has to admit, Quinn is right, even if it took several hours for Valis to realized the whole stupidity of the situation. That's not all. There's still the rioting and very angry folks to deal with, especially the Defense Minister that kept Quinn away. Then there's the episode that he literally avoided a nuclear war with his edge-on-the-seat thinking. He'll have to write a memoir about that.

Still, there are more things to think about. Of course, drafting a treaty regarding the gate, one that would be fair to all party and prevent a nuclear war from breaking out. Quinn will be able to help him with that, despite, or maybe because he's the Minister of Science.

For now, the minister relaxes. He pours a cup of ambrosia and sips from it slowly. He can worry about it later when it's time.


	17. Chapter 16: First Contact Part 5

**Chapter 16: First Contact Part 5**

-o0o0o0o-  
**Stargate Neutral Zone**  
**Langara**  
**May 7, 2008**  
-o0o0o0o-

It had been two weeks since the gate crisis. It is named so because of aliens attempting to contact the people of this world sparks off military mobilization by all three nations. The people of this planet would already be at war if it weren't for the leaders in several nations taking the steps and cooling their head to think through. They can now look forward to greeting the aliens in a somewhat unified fashion, or so Kianna Cyr hopes.

Once again, Cyr and Quinn are traveling in another convoy, this time more pompous and well guarded than the last. Their convey heads toward the valley between the mountains that separate the three nations. The valley is absolutely beautiful. Pine tree covers the landscape, with a river flowing through it. Snowy mountains further highlights the natural scenery.

It's also a perfect location to locate their base, as no nation can fully occupy the valley without going through an extremely bloody fight. It's also where invaders from the other side can be trapped, since the valley is a chokepoint in addition to the chokepoint that is the stargate. Finally, it allows the three nations to finally meet the aliens in a way that wouldn't piss off anybody, starting a new world war on Langara. That word, "Langara" was chosen by the international linguists' conference using an ancient dialect common to the three nations.

As the convoy move closer in the circuitous and newly paved roadway, the features of the base become more distinct and more numerous. First, barges are constantly floating downriver, which are then docked in the base's piers. There are scaffolds that line the various buildings that make part of the base. Not only that, towers and spiky fences line the parameter. Warplanes of numerous designs constantly fly overhead the base in regular interval. Cyr can't help be anxious about the military presence in this valley. After all, the military researched nukes in addition to building armies, planes, and warships which were instrumental in leading to a near destruction of the world.

The convoy momentarily stops at a checkpoint. With a brief talk with the guard at the front, the convoy starts moving again. As the car pass through, Cyr can see a uniformed man holding a submachine gun, the same kind of weapon she heard that the deceased First Minister of Andrai used to make his last stand. She shudders at the sheer cold blooded pragmatism displayed by the Andraian military. A necessary one, she supposes, but still stomach churning the same.

After several minutes, the convoy arrives at the base. Doors open, and she follows Jonas Quinn closely ignoring the other sharply dressed men and women who will be attending the ceremony. However, they still have to go through a security checkpoint, this time with metal detectors and overly paranoid security guards.

The guards check each person one by one, not caring if the dignitary in question is very important. They goes through every nook and cranny, check every ID and other official documents that a person might has on hand. Other than that, the guards eye everybody with suspicions, some more than others. After about an hour, the ordeal of the security check with the guard is finally over.

The dignitaries flood into the new building, with its ultra clean interior decorated with absolutely no money spared. The atrium's floor is all marble, and the doors and rooms are all ornate Greek archietecture with rows of columns and white statutes. Still, it's a military installation. The architects and other designers must keep defensibility in mind. As such the statues and columns are all strategically placed to give soldiers maximum advantage in combat situation. Cyr and Quinn grasps in awe at the attention in details. No doubt, it must have cost a fortune. Of course, it's probably nothing in each nation's treasury. The dignitaries, after staring and taking pictures, move on to the next checkpoint.

"One last check!" A woman voice announces. "We want everyone to be vaccinated and clear of any disease lest you infect our lost cousins from the other world." Dutifully, everyone rolls up their sleeves and submits to testing and vaccination. A lot of yelping can be heard from the clinic that day.

With several more hours to go and security procedure finished, everybody scatters around in a large conference room. The politicians and scientists meet up in their own cliques. Meanwhile, the reporters line up at the few phone booth that were available. As for Cyr and Quinn, they take a look at the mini-televisions that arrived weeks ago.

"Remarkable, isn't it?" Quinn notes. "An interactive device that can communicates wirelessly with other devices as well process video and sound."

"Yet their technologies are not too strange," Cyr replies.

"Well, I think we can't call it a television anymore. It's too inadequate of a description."

"What would you call it?"

"They call it a 'tablet computer'."

"A tablet computer," she repeats. "A computer is a person who do calculation, right? So this is a machine computer?"

"Yes, it can do an untold amount of calculations and other tasks, quickly and accurately, without getting tired. That is, if we 'program' it correctly."

"And these calculations that it can do explains what we had been seeing for the last several weeks?"

"Yes, almost like magic."

"Anyway, I got to prepare. We are going to put the best show as we can, even if it is a very brief one." Quinn walks away to his room. Cyr sighs. At least, she won't be on the white table trying to behave their best. That's her boss' job. She retires to the guest room and contemplates quietly about what's going to happen next.

The time has come. The guests of honor line up at a white table, with the nameplate at every seat they are assigned to. The white table is decorated with the finest silverware and glassware available. Pots of flower adorns the table in between every couple of seats.

As for the journalists, they were behind and beside the table, snapping pictures constantly. Cyr herself hide amongst the journalists, taking in everything that surround the white table. In front of the group is a large glass room with the gate at the concrete wall in the back. Apparatus of some kind were mounted just in front of the gate. Contamination symbol adorns the room, along with various machineries of some design Cyr couldn't decipher. Unlike the classical architecture that surrounds the gateroom, everything in the gateroom is ultra-modern, grey, and lifeless as possible. It's all business.

With several minutes before the official meeting, the gate in front of white table rotates, emitting its characteristic whine. A purple puddle forms as they had before several times before since first contact. Several white hazmat suited figures slowly walks into the room, with color coded collars. The apparatus squirts some kind of chemical onto the suits. Once that's done, the apparatus then wash down the figures with water in every direction. The water all goes down a pre-installed drains. Quinn and everybody else attends to their tablet to see what the various color coding means.

"We are pleased to greet the leaders of Langara," the blue collared man taps his tablet.

"We are pleased to greet the ambassador from Earth," the man in the middle of white table taps. First Minister Valis sweats slightly underneath. Good thing he got Quinn to write that pre-canned message.

"Ready for the exchange of vaccine and biological samples?" The tablets light up again with the new message. An orange suited man with an orange box enters the room from the airlock on the right. The yellow collared suit on the right carefully exchanges the yellow box for the orange box. Each movement is done slowly and methodically. Once the exchange is done, the orange suit leaves the room through the same airlock, careful not to drop the box.

"Ready for the basic cultural exchange?" the tablets say. Each member of the Lagaran delegation hits 'authorize'. The tablets display a smiley face, along with the greek word "happy".

"Thank you. We will exchange further information through our rover for a week until both side determines that we can meet and greet each other in a more official capacity without spreading dangerous diseases." The white suits move away to the side of the gate in ancipiation of the whirlpool.

"Quinn, will you do the honor?" The First Minister of the Tirania Confederacy asks.

"Very glad to do so." Quinn pushes down the button on the DHD in a slow methodical way for the journalists to see. The gate rotates, and then open a wormhole to a distant planet many light years away. The suited men walk into the pool to whence they come from. Just like that, the first meeting with another world in person ends.

A new era draws on the planet of Langara.


	18. Chapter 17: SATO

**Chapter 17: SATO**

-o0o0o0o-  
Prime Minister's Official Residence  
Tokyo, Earth  
May 12, 2008  
-o0o0o0o0o-

If there is one truism about politics, it would be that as one ascend the ladder of government, the amount of formality and banquets goes up. Still, Yoko Kayabuki, the first female prime minister of Japan, can't afford to reject the excruciating rituals that are the occasional requirement. She doesn't want to cause a political impasse with the loon sitting to next her, especially on national television doing an historic state conference with the American delegation.

"With the help of the Japanese scientific establishment," Hayes, the nutcase and the most powerful man on Earth, speaks. How the hell he got elected into office without anyone noticing his developing case of lunacy, she wonders. "Together, we will build a future for humanity amongst the stars. With the new agreement for access to Japan's launchpad, humanity will be able to take to the stars in greater numbers." Hayes makes his characteristic vulcan sign. Kayabuki can only express contempt in her mind, straining to hold her facial expressions in check. Hayes takes a quick glance at her and winks. What the hell? Thunderous applause and a barrage of flashing lights suddenly flood the stage.

Everyone stands up from their seat as the president hands the prime minister a big check. Together they hold it, smiling endlessly at the television crews and cameramen. Kayabuki doesn't mind too much holding the damn check, but behind her facade, she can feel her muscle straining and her mental state building up into a rage. Still, she endures for however long the conference take.

With the conference done, the Prime Minister tries her best not to scurry off the stage, lest she be found unappreciative. The nutcase, on the other hand, leisurely walks out of there as if there is no trouble in the world. If the ceremony affects Hayes, he manages to hide it as well. Though she doubts that is the case. Hayes probably likes the awkard ceremonies. How else the man manage to visit many part of the countries, taking in the endless tedious ceremonies and parades?

"Ma'am," one of her guard whispers in her ear. "The president wants to meet you in private." Ugh! More dance and swan song before she gets the money the loon is paying for access to Japan's launchpad. Only then can she allocate the money to cyberbrain and prosthetic research.

"I'll be right in my office," she replies.

-o0o0o0o-  
Prime Minister's Office  
A few hours later  
-o0o0o0o-

One of the annoying ritual she must do as a politician in front of another is to look busy. So she busily leafs through the documents all the while looking thoughtful. The nutcase finally enters the office. The woman puts her documents down and straighten her back, taking a good look at the lunatic in front of her.

"What can I do for you?" Kayabuki tries her most polite voice. She smiles like daisy, not letting an ounce of contempt slips through her facial expression. The man doesn't look the slightest fooled by the act. Instead he gives his thousand mile look at the prime minister, penetrating through the prime minister's carefully cultivated mask.

"I saw your face just after we left the stage," the president fails to answer. "You don't care for my space initiative." Damn, the president is more perceptive than the clowns that inhabit the Diet.

"What do you want?" Kayabuki replies in a hostile tone. She figures she might as well drop the mask.

"My space initiative is not a lie, but it isn't the whole story."

"Of course, no politician does a space program only for scientific curiosity and for the 'greater good'. Let me guess, you are trying to bankrupt the other countries though a ridiculous technological race."

"I don't see it that way, and that had never been my intent. It is an investment for all of us. All the things I said on television is true. I believe every single words of it, and more. "

"Bullshit."

"That's not the only reason," the president continues. "There are alien threats amongst the stars that we must someday prepare for." Kayabuki becomes even more incredulous.

"You're crazy."

"You don't believe me. Fine. But what about the politicians on capitial hill? How did I manage to convinces them to go along with America's space initiative?" Kayabuki cannot answer that one. "We'll need to work together, with the Chinese and the Russian even, to defend this pale blue dot from evil or even uncaring alien threats. We can't afford to fight each other in petty and meaningless wars."

"So? Actions speak louder than words. You haven't demonstrated that to the Chinese and the Russian nor have you explained what the threats are, if they are real."

"True," the president admits. "That's why I am offering you access to the stargate program along with the Chinese."

"The what?"

"We can also work together on cyberbrain technology. The people of this earth need every advantage they can get." Kayabuki becomes even more confused. She also wonders where the hell Hayes obtain knowledge of her government's black research project. She'll have to scream at the defense minister later for such leak. It's bad enough that an allied nation learnt of her program, but even worse if the leak somehow spreads to her enemies. Meanwhile, Hayes produces a few usb drives from his pocket, along with a letter. "The offer of alliance is also being offered to the Chinese government as speak."

"Why the Chinese? Why not the Russians or the British?" She still haven't ask what the stargate program is.

"Simply put. The Chinese didn't even bother to send agents to Area 52, and neither have your government. Even so, I have no intention of denying an alliance to the great powers on the UN security council nor anybody curious enough to spy on us in Area 52, excluding the North Koreas of the world."

"What exactly is the stargate program?"

"To sum it up, it is an interstellar exploration program facilitated by an ancient network of devices left behind by an unknown mysterious race.. It allows us to travel to other planets in the galaxy instantly."

"Bullshit," she says again.

"It is not bullshit. If you wish to see the truth, you can have the video files on the USB analyzed for video fabrication and photoshopping. In addition, you can contact your Chinese neighbor to see that I am serious. Or you can send an observer to our base in Area 52. Or maybe you can visit it yourself. Though, I am sure it will be a difficult arrangement to make sure that it is kept secret." The doubt in her mind fades significantly. She can't be certain if the president is telling the truth or that he's a nutcase, but if the president could back it up, she'll be a fool not to believe him. Besides, the president is way too lucid to fit the profile of an irrational person.

"Why are you keeping this program secret?"

"Panic, great criticism of the US government, and maybe even nuclear war."

"How could you possibly know that it will happen?"

"I have good reason to believe that it will occur like that, based on first contact with a civilization that is in similar political circumstance."

"You're being vague."

"Well, you have to accept my invitation before I give out more details. Even then, I am not at liberty to go into great details until we have your men in our program. This is top secret, after all." Hayes points at the letter. The Prime Minister picks up the letter and reads:

"The USA invites Japan to become part of the Stargate Alliance Treaty Organization(SATO), a military and scientific alliance to protect Earth and her interest. The alliance will also be performing the duty of exploration, scientific research, technological development, and diplomacy in relation to aliens and interstellar matters..."

"You know that the Japanese military is prohibited from waging war except for self-defense."

"A creative interpretation may be in order."

"I doubt it will pass muster with the courts."

"Defending our homeworld is an extension of defending the Japanese home islands and her interest, Prime Minister. I don't care if you have to change the constitution to do it."

"I doubt I have the political capacity to convinces the Japanese citizens to let me change the law."

"You can either join the alliance or become the footnote of history. Your choice." Kayabuki thinks deeply about what Hayes just said. She certainly doesn't want to be blamed as the Prime Minister who let go of the biggest opportunity in Japanese history.

"Very well. I accept your invitation. When will this alliance be formalized?"

"As soon we let the security council members in the secret. I must say, I don't like Russia or the Chinese. Still, we can't say no to their economic and military capacity that we need to protect this world." She can only agree with the president's assessment.

"When will we start working together?"

"Now."

"Now? I don't even have people to send, much less work with your USBs to confirm your story."

"I prefer not to believe that the Alien menaces are waiting until we are ready to confront them."

"You're serious."

"I am."


	19. Chapter 18: Finding Doctor Jackson Part1

**Chapter 18: Finding Doctor Jackson Part 1**

-o0o0o0o0o-  
O'neill's Apartment  
New Abydos  
May 22, 2008  
-o0o0o0o0o-

Just an hour after dusk and dawn, the alarm clock in O'Neill's darkroom plays the Simpson theme song, O'Neill sluggishly flutters his eyes. The window's door automatically slides open to reveal the constant daylight that hits this planet. Unfortunately, the sunlight directly hits O'Neill face.

"For crying out loud!" O'Neill complains. He slams down the alarm clock hard, knocking a few science fiction novels on his nightstand into the floor below. He takes a quick look at his phone.

"State-side leave," he notes. Not that he's particularly enthusiastic about it. He prefers working with his SG teams and exploring the galaxy, even if it mostly consists of boring drone-and-rover missions exploring mind-numbing ordinary planets. At least there is always the possibility of an exciting and totally novel discovery, like Langara or the terrifying planet that he now lives on, the one they called New Abydos. The higher-ups have other plan. They want him to come back and debrief, submit to medical exams, amongst other things. Afterward, he's free to do whatever he wants.

O'Neill stumbles to his new sink and begins his oral hygiene care. Just outside the window, he can see the constant bamboo scaffold that lines the buildings at one time or another installing white pipes for water or building new houses or floors. No apartments or house possess the traditional bathroom in this colony, except for chemical toilets, which has the advantage of not requiring much infrastructure. Instead, the engineers and city designers opt for conveniently located public bathhouses and bathrooms throughout the colony.

After the usual oral hygiene care and new BDU in hand, O'Neill walks quickly to the public bathhouse next door, which much to O'Neill delight, is well maintained and cleaned immaculately clean. There, he can partake a hot shower, for a price of course. After the completion of his morning routine, he decides to head toward the 'bar' near the center of the town square. With the location in mind, he walks into a narrow street, passing several shop stalls and residence. Street that fills with people carrying weapons and goods.

"Jet meat makes you fast and streamlined," a nearby merchant bullshits in ancient Egyptian. O'Neill couldn't understand what the merchant just said, but jet wings are tasty and spicy all the same. After quick exchange of money and food, O'Neill proceeds to stuff a wing into his mouth.

After several minute walking, he finally reaches the 'bar' near the town square.

"How ya doing, Indiana Jone?" O'Neill greets.

"For the last time, don't call me that," Jackson protests. "Jone is a tomb raider and wrecker. He's a very example of how should an archeologist behaves."

"But you carry an M-16, and you went on an adventure."

"That is for the militia, and that goddamn 'adventure' on Abydos destroyed valuable archaeological information."

"Whatever."

"Doctor, wasn't all the information scanned before we melted the hieroglyphics and caved in the pyramid?" Doctor Carter butts in. Jackson only glares back at her.

"Gimme an iced expresso extra large!" O'Neill orders. There's no alcohol in this area of the colony with all the weapons that people carry around. So O'Neill can only order assorted soft drinks and coffees.

"Anyway, back to our discussion on aliens on Earth-" Jackson resumes.

"Did you say aliens on Earth?" O'Neill interrupts.

"Yes, I believe I just did," Jackson deadpans. "You remembered that Ra had visited and enslaved our ancestors from Egypt thousands of years ago?"

"Yes I did."

"Well, Ra may not be the only one to have visited Earth. We found Norse runes on Heliopolis. Carter and I were discussing how we could detect alien presence on any archaeological finds on Earth."

"Any chance I can tag along?" Carter and Jackson blinks in puzzlement.

"Why are you so interested?" Jackson asks.

"Aside from the constant boredom and the lack of adventure, I need something to occupy my minds with, even if they are just rocks."

"They are not roc-"

"Whatever. Anyway, when are you going to dig?"

"We haven't reached an agreement with the Norwegian government nor do we have a clue where to dig. Still, I'll be going back to Earth tomorrow to recruit some archeologists."

"I am going back to Earth today for debriefing today. Afterward, I get to stay on Earth for a whole week. We'll meet up tomorrow, wherever you decide to go."

"I'll tag along, too," Carter speaks up.

"What?" Jackson and O'Neill shouts simultaneously.

"Do I need a reason to tag along? Unlike O'Neill, I am not bored, but I did work too many hours over too many weeks. I need a vacation to recharge my battery. Plus, Doctor Jackson here makes history very interesting."

"Blue jell-o please!" Carter suddenly orders. Jackson and O'Neill wonders why she like her jell-o blue.

-o0o0o0o0o-  
Non-descript Motel Room  
Area 52, Earth  
At the very same time  
-o0o0o0o0o-

Books, old and new fills the motel room, along with multiple of jury rigged computers and strange unidentifiable devices not of Earth origin. In the center of it all are two tiny humanoid figures, Loki and Kvasir.

"UFOs are surely..." Kvasir reads out loud, holding the book upside down. "Garbage!" He throws the book to a large tub nearby. Several books already landed in the tub where it has been judged absolutely worthless, which so far are all books that Kvasir has read. "On to the next book."

"Is it really necessary to write a search engine when the humans already made one?" Loki asks as he types at his keyboard. "It would be a lot more efficient if we just hack their datacenter."

"Spycraft, Loki, is about gathering the information we need, without alerting the target," his companion replies. "Your method would have alerted the humans to our presence."

"So says Kvasir, the fool who brought tons of book all at once in a shop the other day," Loki mutters. "Hypocrite."

"Hmm, this is sensible" Kvasir thinks out loud. "The argument makes sense. We got a lead."

"Who authors that book?" Loki questions.

"A doctor named Daniel Jackson."

"On it." With Kvasir's full attention on the book, Loki switches covertly to a window and rapidly inputs some commands onto the Earth computer. It starts executing a series of program that he had written last night but had no time to start. Then he quickly switches back to his hand-crafted search engine and dutifully enters a query for the man named Daniel Jackson.

"What's his book?"

"The Truth about the Pyramids." Loki refines his search to include Kvasir's answer.

"Got it. I found a death certificate as well his employment history. His last job was with the air force."

"We won't go to the military establishment, at least not now. What's the next last job?"

"He was a substitute educator at Von Braun High School," Loki replies.

"We'll go to Von Braun High School."

"When?"

"Four days from now"

-o0o0o0o-  
Von Braun High School  
Massachusetts, Earth  
A few minutes later  
-o0o0o0o-

The bell rings. Then there's the rush to get the heck out of school. After all, summer is starting. Eli can't wait to start on the new video MMO, Prometheus.

"Eli! Wait for me!" Then there's Rob again, with his research on whatever happening in Area 52. "I found something interesting!" Eli wonders whether to ignore his friend in favor of going home straight-away. But his body slows down, determining that he will meet with his annoying friend to see what he has to say, even if it ends up a completely waste of time.

"What do you want?" Eli asks with an impatient tone. "I got a game at home to play."

"You're not going to believe it. I found Doctor Daniel Jackson."

"Didn't you say he's dead with that death certificate?"

"I know, and I don't believe it. However, the military got sloppy this time around. He's in Area 52, working on super duper top secret stuff, probably."

"And how do you know if it was him? You still haven't convince me that this Jackson character at Cheyenne mountain is the same guy that used to teach us ancient history."

"I know, but I got proof. See this?" Wallace takes a look at the document that Rob probably hacked from a military computer.

"Alright, it looks and sounds like our Doctor Jackson. Now, you didn't do something illegal, did you?"

"I did not. I promise." Wallace looks at Rob skeptically. "Look, I got this information off public source on public website. You can check all the links yourself."

"Does it say what he's working on?"

"No. But we can find out more information at the last university he lectured at."

"That's MIT."

"And I got into contact with an archeologist who specialized in something called Vinland Archeology and he's supposedly a good friend of Daniel Jackson. If anybody knows how to find him, it's this guy."

"When do we go?"

"Five days from now."


	20. Chapter 19: Finding Doctor Jackson Part2

**Chapter 19: Finding Doctor Jackson Part 2**

-o0o0o0o-  
**Carter's Car**  
**Massachusetts, Earth**  
**May 26, 2008**  
-o0o0o0o-

A red restored mustang cruises down the street of Boston. Doctor Samantha Carter, the mustang's owner, is driving it. O'Neill rides shotgun, while Jackson sits in the back. These are a very special group of humans. Humans that would be in many other universe the exploration flag team SG-1, braving extraordinary danger, and influencing the galaxy at large singlehandely. However, that is not to be in this reality. Even so, the trio is still drawn to each other.

They were deep in conversation on a topic until O'Neill interrupts with an idle and completely unrelated musing.

"Ever got a feeling that we're missing somebody that should be part of our group?" O'Neill wonders. He can feel right now that there is something wrong with the cosmic order, but he doesn't know what.

"That's totally unrelated to the topic at hand," Jackson notes with exsperration. "A complete non-sequitur even."

"Our group does feel incomplete," Carter concurs with O'Neill.

"Carter! I can't believe you're siding with him," Jackson protests. "This is complete utter nonsense." Carter is taken slightly back at the accusation, almost causing her to mess up her driving. She decides to say nothing rather than ruffles Jackson's feather.

"Yeah, we're missing a big strong alien guy," O'Neill jokes. Elsewhere in the galaxy, a First Prime to an evil overlord sneezes loudly in his sleep, as if he knows that somebody is talking about him.

"Spacemonkey, I know that it is 'scientific nonsense'," O'Neill admits. "It is still an irritating gut-feeling all the same." Jackson glares at O'Neill.

"Anyway, the geneticists told me that there were two major groups of people on Langara," Jackson resumes the discussion. "One group can be traced all the way back to ancient Greece several thousand of years ago, right about the time that Ra kidnapped humans from Egypt. Another group, however, represents one of the oldest branch of humanity, but they don't exist until after the asteroid event that destroyed the previous civilization."

"Wait, you told me that one of their scroll states that 'life began out there'," O'Neill jogs his memory. "That document only appears after the asteroid impact."

"Right. Unfortunately, almost all the texts in that particular document were destroyed."

"You think they might have come from Earth?" Carter asks.

"Unfortunately, we have no evidence here on Earth to suggest that. There is nothing in the historical research that fit the idea that ancient astronauts had disappeared Greeks or any other group a few thousand years after Ra. What we do know is that they started worshipping the whole of the Greek pantheon after the impact. However, the lack of evidence in our case probably only means that we didn't even look yet."

"So you're recruiting more of your buddies to look into this," O'Neill conjectures.

"Well, not exactly. I stated previously that I am recruiting archeologists and historians with Norse speciality to look into the Heliopolis connection. Now with Langara, we will start recruiting archeologists who specialize in Greece antiquity down the line. Considering the importance of Heliopolis, Norse archeology takes priority over Greek."

"We're here at MIT," Carter announces. "Now, I just need to find parking space."

-o0o0o0o-  
**An Archeologists' Office**  
**Thirty minutes later**  
-o0o0o0o-

Inside the office of an archeologist, a middle-aged professor with wild flowing brown hairs and round glasses can be seen rapidly talking and gesturing to the two midgets. The midgets, being too short, elects to stand on their chairs so that they can face the professor without having to look upward.

"Yes, that's right. The Vinland colonists..." Without notice, several knocks vibrate through the door.

"Excuse me," the old professor says. "Who is it?"

"This is Doctor Daniel Jackson," a familiar voice announces. "Am I interrupting anything?" The professor is expecting Doctor Jackson today.

"No, not at all. Please come in. There are two individuals who are looking for you." Doctor Jackson opens the door.

"Hello Doctor Jackson, we are fans of your work," Kvasir greets.

"My..my..my work?" Jackson stutters. Carter and O'Neill exchanges quick glance at each other.

"Yes, your work on pyramid. It is most logical, unlike the vast majority of works in the genre. In fact, 99.99999% are utter drivel, except the books that debunk the claims."

"And the two are experts on Vinland archeology as well," the old professor adds.

"Oh, you flatter us, Professor James. We are mere enthusiasts in all things Norse, not academians."

"No, you are way too knowledgable to be mere amateurs. I mean, you just debated with me how the Vinland colonists disappeared. There are only a handfuls of scholars who know just as much as you do."

"What's going on?" Jackson puzzles.

"We are Loki and Kvasir Ackerman," Kvasir quickly replies. Hearing this, the old professor inputs a string query into googles. It turns up nothing relevant to Ackerman's scholarly works.

"Eh? No results," the professor says to no one in particular, with a dismayed tone.

"Like we said, we are not scholars, but mere enthusiasts."

"These are names from Norse mythology," Jackson recalls.

"Not unusual names in Norway," Loki improvises.

"Um, I need to talk to Professor James in private. You can talk more Norse stuff or my books with my friend O'Neill and Carter outside." The two midgets step out of the room, while Jackson walks into the room.

"What's going on Jackson? Have you found out more evidence for your hypothesis?" The professor inquires.

"That's not what I am here today. In fact, the air force wants you." Jackson proceeds to ambush Doctor Edward James with a non-disclosure agreement form.

"What this? What the air force wants with an archeologist?"

"Unfortunately, I can't talk to you unless you agree to that form." The professor inspects the form. It has barcodes and other marks. The skepticism on the professor's face quickly disappears.

"Unless you tell me more, I won't sign it."

"Look, this is going to be worthwhile for you. The air force needs your expertise."

"My expertise, in what exactly? Wait, why are you working in the air force?"

"With," Jackson corrects.

"What the air force wants with a discredited academian?"

"I thought you like my hypothesis," Jackson replies with a non-sequitur.

"That may be true, but I am not risking my career to support what is obviously heresy, in a field that I don't know much about! You know what they say? They said that you believed that the pyramids are landing strip for aliens!" As much as that is the truth, Jackson can't blurt it out.

"I never stated that ancient astronauts visited Egypt nor are the pyramids actually landing strips."

"I know."

"Anyway, you also know that two years ago, I am basically blacklisted everywhere in our profession. Even my gig with a local high school ended with the principal firing me after she found out that I am a nutcase. Now, I am standing with you, giving you a non-disclosure form. You can check if it is for real with your lawyer. I am scouting you. Think what that actually mean before you say no, forever."

The professor gulps. He has no idea what the Air force wants with two scholars in the humanity, but the only way he will know if he signs the form. Oh, it's so tempting.

"I'll be waiting two days for your response," Jackson informs. "You'll have to deliver your response in your person, along with the agreement. Only then, I will further explain what you will be doing." With that, Jackson walks out.

"Hey Danny boy, how goes the meeting?" O'Neill questions. Jackson sighs in frustration.

"Predictable."

"Kvasir and Loki here are actually looking for you," Carter informs Doctor Jackson what she had just learned. "They want very much to discuss your book."

"Oh, yes, the professor told us that," Jackson confirms. "We can discuss this topic over coffee? I know where the local coffee shop is located."

"You guys go on ahead, I need to discuss something with Carter quick," O'neill says. The two aliens incognito exchange worried glances at each other, but go on to discuss the location of this coffee shop. O'Neill and Carter walks away to a more private spot.

"I believe those two midgets may be Norweigan spies," O'neill whispers.

"What?" Carter exclaims.

"It makes senses. They are 'expert' in Norse mythology and they are very knowledgable about Jackson's book. I must also add they chose this time to show up in the office of a Norse archeologist looking for Doctor Jackson."

"It could be a coincidence."

"Last I heard on the vineyard, the Norwegians are very interested in why we are so interested in their artifacts. Norway is going to be included in SATO soon anyway, but if we are leaking information, we need to find out the nature of said leak. If the leak is public, it's much worse than a Norwegian mole or spy in our midst."

"Alright. I keep an eye on them. I don't think they are spies though."

"Maybe, or maybe not. I am calling Hammond."


	21. Chapter 20: Finding Doctor Jackson Part3

**Chapter 20: Finding Doctor Jackson Part 3**

-o0o0o0o0o-

Near a Coffee Shop

Massachusetts, Earth

Thirty minutes later

-o0o0o0o0o-

Ah, the "farm". The place they trained CIA spooks. Maybourne remembers getting kidnapped with a bag over his head. He was completely disoriented, uncertain, and unsure of himself the whole time, specially when he arrived at the training camp with his fellow trainee spies. They never gave Maybourne any time of the day in regard to rest or reflect. No, he had time only to do what they told. Where to sleep, eat, fight, shoot, run, takes note, question, trust, or be suspicious at. There's no surrender or determination. He became a robot there. Then, without warning, he graduated and was unceremoniously dumped into the first field assignment he ever has, which is to spy on a potential foreign agent or traitor.

Maybourne feels absolutely nervous. He just seduced a "spy" into letting him work for her or her organization. Now, he is outdoor in Massachusetts for god knows what reason doing something totally illegal and totally unethical so that he can then prevent further illegal and unethical actions from happening. What's exactly is that, he has no idea. He hopes only not to be the on the wrong side of history, like the guy opposite to Agent Snow.

Dressed in a plain suit and tie, Maybourne nervously walks into the parking lot where Carter and midgets parked their cars. He scans the surrounding for anybody or anything that might be looking at him. There's nobody in the parking lot.

"Yo, any camera I should be worrying about?" Maybourne mutters into the hidden microphone.

"Surprisingly, none," a female voice responds in a chrippy and totally unprofessional tone.. Spotting the red mustang, he makes his way toward the back of the car. Taking one quick scan, he sees nobody again. Feeling reassured, he takes out a round device in his left pocket and attaches the device to the bottom of the car. Then he repeats his procedure the second time with the Norwegian midgets. With his job done, he sneaks away back to his van.

"The job is done. Now what?" Maybourne asks his female "handler".

"I am planning an international incident," she says in a sinister tone. Oh god, what had Maybourne gotten himself into?

"Nature call," he says as innocently as possible. He walks into the bookstore and scribbles down a note to stuff it into one of the couch.

"Whoa! Great Teacher Jackson!" Maybourne overhears. "We knew that you were alive all along! See this? It's a death certificate." Oh dear, did his real handler pick the same exact place where Jackson and his pals are hanging out? No matter, he better scrams before they see his face.

Safe or not, he is back at the nondescript white van again. With this mention of "international incident", he better find out what it is.

"Say," Maybourne strikes up a conversation. "Why are we creating an international incident?"

"To sow distrusts of course. We can't let anybody gets their hand on top secret projects in Area 52. Since those Norwegians are spies, they are fair game." Maybourne stops himself from raising his eyebrows.

"You believe that they are spies?"

"Of course! My source fed me intel that the two midgets are spies. I even broke into their room and snatched a few files on what they are trying to find out."

"What is it?"

"They are trying to find out what Area 52 is doing with all the disappearing tanks and what "

"What do you think Area 52 is doing?"

"Another source told me they are building laser weapons and using those tanks as testing platform." In his mind, Maybourne feels a slight relief for this spy falling for his agency's lie. Of course, it's nonsense that the military would use perfectly good tanks as target practice for experimental weapons. That just makes him suspicious about the competency of his handler. Clearly, she got the right idea to attach GPS devices under the two cars, but falling for the lie? Maybe in reality, she realizes that's nonsense. It's too bad that he couldn't figure if she's telling the truth or not.

"By this international incident, do you mean kidnapping or an arrest?" Complete silence follows. The woman refuses to answer.

"We are doing this for America, right?" Maybourne says in a doubting tone.

"Of course! You and I will make money off of it too." Bingo flows through his mind momentarily, then he snaps back to attention. There's the worry about what this 'international incident' entails. If it going to happen soon, he need to warn his boss as soon as possible without blowing his cover.

-o0o0o0o-

Bookstore/coffeeshop

At the same time

-o0o0o0o-

"So, what are you doing now, Doctor Jackson?" Eli asks, just realizing that the visit to MIT is all moot because they just found him in the coffeeshop.

"I am doing archaeology," Jackson tells Eli the truth. Wallace takes a step back in response to the unexpected answer. He has no idea how archaeology has anything to do with the air force.

"Oh really?" Rob replies skeptically. "Why would Great Teacher Jackson do that for the Air force?"

"Rob!" Eli scolds his friend. "Do not call him by that title, we aren't his 'students' anymore. Besides, he was never a real teacher, just a substitute."

"It's really true that I am still doing archaeology in exchange that I do practical works for them," Jackson lied. Archaeology is practical work. "Right guys?" Carter and O'Neill nod their heads.

"And who are you?" Eli asks of the group.

"We too are fans of Doctor Jackson," Loki speaks quickly before Kvasir speaks for them. "We came looking for Doctor Jackson, but he found us instead. "

"I am Doctor Samantha Carter, an astrophysicist," Carter introduces herself.

"Cool!" Eli exclaims.

"Hey! Don't forget me! I am Jack O'Neill, a colonel in the Air Force," O'Neill says truthfully without revealing too much.

Rob looks at the colonel with suspicious eyes.

"So what you guys are really in for?" Rob repeats Eli's question, except in a more serious tone.

"I already told you, I am doing consulting work for the Airforce," Jackson repeats himself.

"Let me guess," Rob begins to conjecture. "The Air Force is probably using your linguistic skills to create new code or something." No response were forthcoming from the group.

"Everyone from your original class signed you a thank you letter," Eli informs Jackson. "You know, ever since we figured that you are still alive. Where do we mail it?"

"Oh, thanks," Jackson says dumbfounded. He didn't know that he has that much impact on his student.

"Wow, you must be a really popular teacher," O'Neill remarks. Jackson ignores him.

"Um," Jackson tries to answer. Jackson's home is offworld, so there is no traditional mailing address, nor could it be found through google street. Even so, the Air Force set up an empty house and an address that Jackson didn't bother to remember.

"We'll be here in the Dam Good Hotel tonight and tomorrow, although I don't know what room we will be staying in," Carter improvises. "You can give us your letter during that time."

"We are?" O'Neill questions. The two teenager exchanges look at each other. "Anyway, I have to make a phone call. You two are welcome to talk." Eli's eyebrows raise a little, while Rob's face remains unchanged.

Several meters away, O'Neill opens up his secure phone and dials Stargate HQ.

"Um, hello? Get Hammond for me...Yes...Yes...We may have a breach, again."

-o0o0o0o-

Thirty minutes later

-o0o0o0o-

With the shop closed, Eli and Rob walks into the street. They can hear the raw sounds of the car that Jackson and his friends are riding. Finally, the red mustang skirts out into the parking. The duo has to admit, Jackson got really cool friends.

"If you didn't say all that shit, they wouldn't get all that suspicious of us!" Eli yells. He has the look of fear on his face.

"You're kidding me? They got nothing on us if they raid our houses. What I did is completely legal."

"Still, I don't want that kind of trouble!"

"Oh yeah, when the last time that ever deter you? Besides, I got a cool mission for both of us."

"What is it?"

"Tonight, we go into the hotel under the guise of delivering the letter to Doctor Jackson, see if there's any information we could glean from watching the surrounding."

"That's stalking and espionage!"

"Not if we got a good cover story. Besides, don't you want to know what they do for a living? If they are any good, we won't find anything. However, it only takes a mistake for us to gather the tiniest of clues. Clues that will eventually build into a story without landing us in jail." Eli eyes Rob reluctantly.

"Fine, but if I am spooked one bit, I am out of here and I am going to sell you out." Having gained the cooperation of his friend, Rob smirks at Eli.


	22. Chapter 21: Finding Doctor Jackson Part4

**Chapter 21: Finding Doctor Jackson Part 4**

-o0o0o-  
**Dam Good Hotel**  
**Massachusetts, Earth**  
**Forty minutes later**  
-o0o0o-

A beat-up black colored Camry automobile with the Massachuetts license plate parks itself near a hotel. Two teenagers casually exit the car. The sight of teenagers at this time of the night is highly unusual to any observers who have any familiarity of the street. Even so, it is not too alarming that people would call the cops.

"Got your phone ready?" Rob inquires.

"Um, wouldn't that be suspicious?" Eli shoots back.

"How? Everybody carries phone and take pictures these days. Hell you take more picture than anybody I ever see."

"But I don't post them."

"Nonsense, when they find your collection of ordinary photos of Dam Good Hotel amongst all the perfectly boring place you take pictures of, they will stop getting suspicious," Rob tries to reassure.

"But-"

Rob, his friend, annoying lover of cat videos, is a little bit of a troublemaker and a spymaster himself. Ok, he isn't probably on a professional level, but he always manage to acquire information from sources unknown, some which Eli suspected is entirely illegal. His friend also has a particular talent in recruiting Eli for his deeds by using really convincing arguments to do slightly crazy thing, like pranking that damn principal for kicking out Doctor Jackson. But lately, the crazy things Rob is willing to do is escalating. For example, last week, Rob successfully orchestrated a plot to get ten of the worst teachers fired, which sadly didn't include Eli's horrid history teacher. Wallace is certain that Littleton will get him into hot water someday, maybe with the current effort to spy on his former teacher.

"Are you going to chicken out just on the tiny weeny chance of getting busted?" Rob talks in a mocking tone. Eli gives a thoughtful expression. "I guess not. It's now or never." He finally takes out his phone. He then pulls up the camera app, ready to take pictures at a moment notice.

-o0o0o-  
**White Van**  
**At the very same time**  
-o0o0o-

Maybourne never intended to be a spy. After the terrorist attack back in the 90s, he was inspired to serve his country via the military. Unfortunately, a short time after joining the Air Force, a douchebag tried to blackmail him and failed. A long chain of events, which of course involved a certain extraterrestrial device, cumulated into General Hammond giving him a job he can't refuse.

Now, he's an actual spy, a legitimate manipulative lying bastard.

"Hey! Are you there? You do know what I just said, right? Wasn't the ending awesome?" Kershaw pesters his conversational partner. Oops, he shouldn't have drifted off earlier into his own thought. Bad idea to be miserable about being forced into an espionage career when he has a duty to perform.

"For your glorious deed, have a drink, Kershaw" Maybourne sweet-talks the woman agent. Maybourne is guessing, but he heard so many stories from Kershaw's spying life, which enables Maybourne to make an educated guess.

"Alright," she replies vainly. Together, they toast a drink. Score?

"It's gooooing-," Kershaw drifts into sleep. Maybourne scores! To reassure himself, he checks Kershaw's vital signs and attempt to lightly wake her up. The last thing he needs is the spy entrapping him by pretending to fall asleep. Good, she is out stone cold.

"Good thing I took an antidote beforehand," he mutters to himself. With the rouge spy out of commission, he opens the door and walk several meters away into an alley, with his eyes still on the hotel and the van.

"Um. Hello? I need to talk to...No, it can't wait!...Yes..."

-o0o0o0o-  
**Moving APC**  
**Thirty second away**  
-o0o0o0o-

Several figures dressed in full SWAT gears hunker down in the cramped APC gifted to them by the US military.

"What do we got again?" A young man asks again.

"We are to apprehend two suspected Norwegian spies harboring dangerous information," a face scarred man debrief the team. "Time sensitive information that would immediately endanger the public. This is why we are the only SWAT team enroute because we are the nearest unit with the security clearance."

The swat team collectively gulps. This is very serious, and they need to do it fast. Wait? Why would they be arresting Norwegians? Oh well, it doesn't matter. Their job isn't to question things.

"Also, they are midgets in room 9," the old man reminds the team. "You can't miss it."

-o0o0o0o-  
**The Vicinity of Dam Good Hotel**  
**20 seconds until raid**  
-o0o0o0o-

The sound of police cars blares though the street, while flashing lights become more intense by the second.

"Holy shit, I think I know what Kershaw intends to do," Maybourne talks in a hushed voice into his phone.

Upon hearing the blaring, Eli promptly turns his back on his friend.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Rob exclaims. He turns around as well.

"Running away before I get caught," Eli says quickly. With shivers running down his spine, Rob decides that it is in both their best interest to follow Eli back into the car.

Unexpectedly, two midgets walks out of the alleyway. Eli and Rob vaguely recognize them as Jackson's guests. The teenagers freeze their steps.

"Quick, change the hologram!" Kvasir speaks in Asgardian Norse, not realizing that two teenagers are in front of him. They both press one of the button on their wrist. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, they both press the wrong button at the same time.

"Oh my god! The Grey!" Eli yells. Rob, unfazed, quickly presses the snap button on his friend's iPhone. The flashing light blinds the greys momentarily.

"We pressed the wrong button!" Loki yells after realizing their error. Together, they switch to a disguise that is not caucasian and proceed to move away as fast as their physiology allows.

"Eli? Put your phone away," Rob instructs. Eli put his phone in his pocket while his mouth is still open.

"Then walk to the car," Rob instructs further. Together, they get into the Camry, which is several meters away from the police parameters and blue lights.

-o0o0o-  
**Room 5**  
**10 seconds until raid**  
-o0o0o-

Attentive to the sound of blaring that quickly increases in volume, O'Neill looks out between the blindfold that covers the window.

"Um guy? Whatever you do, don't make a sudden move and put your hands up," O'Neill warns his friends.

Several seconds later, an APC arrives, disgorging a SWAT unit.

"HEY GUYS! OVER HERE!" Maybourne draws attention to himself. "I GOT ZERO INFO!" The swat team stops their movement on a dime.

"Who are you?" The scarred old man questions.

"Who am I is none of your concern right now. You need to talk into this." Maybourne points to his phone. The old man yanks his phone and begins talking into the phone.

"Uh huh...Can you confirm it?...Agents on the way?...What?...Authenticate..." The old man whispers into Maybourne's phone.

"Arrest this man and the woman in the white van!" The old man barks. "We are to search the hotel top to bottom, starting with room 0!" The SWAT quickly shoves Maybourne and the rouge spy into custody. The SWAT team goes into the hotel and systematically knocks on every door, going through each and every room in the building, arresting anybody who happens to be there. Once the occupants are out on the street, the SWAT releases every individual one by one. An officer in the APC goes through the motion of pressing buttons, not even looking at the screen.

-o0o0o-  
**Thirty minutes later**  
-o0o0o-

After the trio came back into their room, O'Neill once again dials his secure phone and calls for Hammond.

"Yes, sir. A SWAT team raided the hotel we are in," O'Neill reports.

"Did they find what they are looking for?"

"No, sir. I believe they did not find anything. Everyone got let go. It could be a coincidence that this hotel is targeted for a raid."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, though I believe the two midgets who I suspected to be spies were not amongst the arrested."

"Alright, thank you for this information. You'll be debriefed soon in a secure location." The general then hangs up. O'Neill scans the room for his two friends.

"Boys and girls! Vacation over for now," O'Neill says in a commanding voice. "We'll be debriefed on tonight's incident. Start packing." A collective groan fills the room.

-o0o0o-  
**Inside A Camry**  
**At the very same time**  
-o0o0o-

With the police cars parting in their separate directions, the two teenagers sigh in relief.

"So, what we do with the photo?" Eli works up the courage to speak.

"Don't do anything," Rob orders. "I do the securing and the backup. We are to speak nothing of it until we gather the next clue, whatever it is."

"Why? Are you trying to keep it from me?" Eli accuses Rob.

"What? No! This is information security. Besides, if I betrayed your trust, you would use your photos against me."

"Still, do you think we saw real aliens tonight?"

"I don't know. We only got one photo and our own memory. Extraordinary claim requires more evidence."


	23. Chapter 22: Aftermath

Chapter 22: Aftermath

-0o0o0o0o-  
Unknown Room  
CIA Safehouse, Earth  
May 27, 2008  
-0o0o0o0o-

A nondescript drab grey room, with a single light, a little desk, and a chair would be what Hollywood describes as an interrogation room. That is what also describe an actual CIA interrogation room. In that room after the incident at the Dam Good Hotel predictably sits Kershaw, the rouge "spy", as well her interrogator, CIA agent Malcom Barrett, a man who is highly experienced in interrogation.

Barrett looks at his prisoner with critical and accusing eyes. Meanwhile, Kershaw tries desperately hard to maintain her innocent mask. But it's falling apart as each second passes.

"I gam-" Kershaw tries to say.

"I don't believe your sob story!" Barrett intimidates with a loud voice and a large scowl. Lieutenant Kershaw sobs loudly.

"But it's true! I got snarled into this because of gambling debt," she protests, with her tears still flowing. He is slightly impressed that she manages to keep lying in her emotional turmoil, but no matter, she is already on her last leg.

"That what you just told me," he says in an angry voice. "Tell me, who is the source of your intel?"

"I don't know! He has a deep voice, that's all."

"Look, if you don't tell me the truth, I am going to subject you to 'enhanced' interrogation," he lies in a neutral tone. In fact, after Agent Snow, all form of torture is prohibited, not that the public knows. Kershaw's face turns very white. Barret responds with a fake sadistic grin.

"Fine! All I did was followed Jackson around, because that is what I told, and I managed to overhear what that 40 something man said about the Norwegian spies." Just like that, she breaks down. It is very easy. Way too easy for Barrett. Usually, the folks he interrogate are much harder than that. Could he be dealing with an amateur instead of a professional spy?

"So, what is your real story?"

"Gambling debt, like I said," she repeats herself for the third time.

"Fine," Barrett concedes. Maybe there is something deeper than just a couple of gambling debt, or maybe not. Maybourne did mention something about Kershaw hoping to get rich, but if she is not going to change her story after being broke, than the story is probably true. That is, if she has no money whatsoever.

"No. What I really hope is to get rich and protect America at the same time," she changes her story. "At least that what the handler told me."

"By capturing the spies of an ally?" A slight note of incredulity seeps into his voice.

"Yes," she says with a straight face. "I am told that they are not allies. They come here to steal secrets from Area 52, you know, where we are developing some unbelievable tech."

"So, by this 'international incident', you hope to?" Barrett is careful not to put words into her mouth, especially when she's feeding him a crazy stupid story. But he's not detecting any lie right now.

"Prevent entry of Norwegians into the country until they stop spying on us somehow."

"And how you accomplish this?"

"I called in my handler."

"What the person who recruited you look like?" Barrett moves on to the next topic.

"An old man about over his 50s, big nose, brown eyes, curvy hairs..." And so Barrett continues to plumb the depth of Kershaw for information.

-0o0o0o0-  
Thirty minute later  
-0o0o0o0-

With the interrogation finished, Barrett walks to the room next door, the one that contains footage of Kershaw's interview and Barrett's boss, Deputy Director Kurt Smith for the CIA Directorate of Stargate Services. Kershaw, meanwhile is escorted by several guards with a bag over her head and an orange jumpsuit in her hands. For her crime, she will spend a lengthy term in a federal prison for espionage.

Barrett clears his throat for his boss. Smith looks at Barrett expectantly, waiting for him to start debriefing him on the topic.

"Kershaw knows a few tricks up her sleeves, but she's a complete amateur," Barrett begins. "Or she may pretending to be dumb and stupid to throw us off their tail."

"Obsfucating stupidity, eh?"

"Yes, I do not know why she told Maybourne about her plan. Only after telling him the plan is he able to prevent the local SWAT team from doing something utterly stupid."

"Whether she is a complete amateur or someone sent to toy with us, that's one thing. I am more worried about how she ordered a level 9 SWAT team to that hotel. Somebody rogue has access to the LE network."

"It's done in such a sloppy manner too," Barrett continues his evaluation of the operation. "You have cops blaring down the street, instead of a silent raid. Maybe the operation isn't meant to succeed? But for what purpose?"

"We're lucky in that regard, but it doesn't mean that we are out of the wood just yet."

"What is it?"

"The midgets disappeared into thin air, leaving behind their possession. We got their identity papers, books, gadgets, and everything else. All of them indicates and authenticates them as just Norwegian tourists, not spies, albeit with a suspicious interest in Doctor Jackson and Norse mythology." Barrett shows a pensive and worried face at what his boss just told him.

"If they don't show up anywhere soon, we might have a diplomatic crisis on our hand," Barrett predicts. "If they are spies who knew what is about to transpire that evening, our best bet is that they will be at a Norwegian embassy reporting to their agency about our 'misbehavior', worsening our relation with Norway. On the other hand, if they are mere civilians, then it is probably that the operation by Kershaw is a distraction for the real operation."

"We don't know which is what, so we'll wait and see."

"Also, our investigation on Eli Wallace and Rob Littleton turns up nothing, although they are a pair of sleuth who managed to pick up the fact that Daniel Jackson is still alive, as well sniffed out many true facts about Area 52 in a sea of misinformation. Littleton is the instigator and information security specialist and Wallace is the reluctant math consultant. In any case, we need to ask the Air Force to clean house a little more throughly."

"Sounds like NSA's department. Forward their profiles to them. God knows how much we need hackers and mathematicians. Oh, fetch Maybourne for me."

"Yes, sir."

"One more thing, I am assigning you to investigate the spy ring that surrounds Kershaw. We need to shut it down before more 'international incident' goes through."

"Yes sir," the agent repeats himself. A small smile appears on his face. Whatever Kershaw and her fellow conspirators are doing, he is glad that he is given an opportunity to find out what the hell is going on.

-0o0o0o0-  
Asgard Safehouse  
Massachusetts, Earth  
At the same time  
-0o0o0o0-

The duo walks into the safehouse, using a key that Loki owns. With a simple voice command and a security scan, Loki deactivates the illusionary hologram. The safeouse transforms from a drab and generic white wall house with average furniture into the graceful and curvy design that is the Asgard aesthetic. It's still designed by humans but it was to the Asgard standard. Kvasir is not impressed a slightest bit. Rather he turns angrier by the minute, but a human or even an Asgard wouldn't notice a change in the demeanor. Rather, the species has too little fascial muscle to express anger, let alone other emotions.

"So, Loki, would you tell me what's going on?" Kvasir questions in an accusing tone. His face remains emotionless. "Why are we in an apartment that you apparently have a key to?"

"This is a safehouse I established ten years ago," Loki starts.

"What?" Kvasir's voice becomes angrier. "How long have you been making unauthorized visit to Midgard!? Are those 'greys' not a figment of their imagination?" Loki ignores the last question for now.

"And before you become more angry, it was me who figured out that somebody is on to us. It was me who took measure to ensure that our identity is more than just a filmsy hologram."

"And what did you do exactly?"

"I constructed an identity for us so that they wouldn't figure out that we are not from this planet. That's good for only a few cycles of this planet. I need to work on providing a paper trails for the authorities to follow forever."

"And what about the human protoforms that spotted us? They even have a photo of us."

"One photo is not evidence of our existence," Loki tries to reassure. "As they said, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proofs. So far, they have no reason to questions that there are life out there, and as far as they know, FTL is currently an impossiblity."

"They better not, or this recording will be my testimony against your!" Kvasir threaten. Kvasir pulls up his recording device as proof. Loki opens his mouth in shock as he realizes that Kvasir just recorded the whole conversation.


	24. Chapter 23: An Interlude

**Chapter 23: An Interlude**

-o0o0o0o0o0o0o-  
**Stargate Command HQ**  
**Area 52, Earth**  
**June 16, 2008**  
-o0o0o0o0o0o0o-

Major Davis walks into the general's office as he done hundred of time since SGC was formed. The general's desk looks completely clear of clutter. Not that Hammond is an unorganized person. It just that he has lot of paperworks. Davis recognizes that this is unusual. The cordial commanding officer is always buried under paperwork, but not today.

"At ease," the general finally says. Davis fails to loosen up his stance. For him, it's much easier to remain at attention anyway. "You're promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, congratulation."

"What?" He is glad for the promotion but it's completely unexpected.

"Your superb organizing skill and ruthless efficiency has been and continues to be instrumental to the success of SGC. Without you, we would not be able to evacuate the refugees from Abydos in a timely manner, and we would not have moved as hard, fast, and efficient as we like. It's time for you to stop being my de-facto assistant and do something greater."

"What would that be, sir?"

"You'll be the head of the Research &amp; Development division, working with DARPA and other groups. Don't get me wrong. You're not being demoted, it's just that the SGC is expanding rapidly. Returning to your root, so to speak."

"I see, but doesn't that harm the efficiency of the organization if you don't have me as your assistant?"

"Don't worry about that, Colonel. I intend to hold the people in my command to the standard you set for us. Not to worry, if I need you to cut through the bullshit or organize something critical, I'll call for you. You're dismissed and here is your envelope containing all the information you need to set up your team." The general hands over a yellow envelope.

Smiling, the newly minted colonel walks out the office.

-o0o0o0o0o-  
**Research Complex**  
**New Abydos**  
**June 18, 2008**  
-o0o0o0o0o-

From the tallest story in the building, Lieutenant Colonel Davis looks down into the landscape below. From time to time, the air force likes to gaze at a scenery alone. It allows him peace and the ability to think without distraction.

The cityscape lacks lighting fixture. No street lamps adorn any of the utility poles. They are completely unnecessary on a planet in which lights shines on for all hours of the day. But there is a lot of canvas that cover part of the streets, some of which even adorn utility poles, recreating the darkness that humans need to regulate their circadian sleep cycle.

His phone beeps. It's time for Davis to stop looking at the landscape below. Davis takes the elevator to the first floor, where a mini conference is currently being held. Ever since the stargate program restarted, scientists and engineers are hard at work advancing humanity's ability to defend itself from alien threats, laying the foundation with theoretical research, and generally busying themselves with research and development. But that has not been Davis' primary focus for a while. He got recruited by General Hammond to help run SGC in an efficient and effective manner. Now, it's his primary purpose to lead the R&amp;D department. The first thing he did is to organize a conference to find out exactly the state of scientific research.

Sure, he could just read the summaries that his scientists submit, but it's often far better to get the scientists and engineers to present something he can feel, hear, taste, or just experience. This way, he has a better idea of what his scientists are up to and allocate resource more wisely. Presentation of research is not free. It uses up resources that could be spent on jus doing research. But the benefit outweighs the cost. Davis is not the only beneficiary. Far from it. His scientists benefit from cross-pollinating ideas and understanding how their work fits within the whole.

The ride in the elevator isn't long, as the building is only about 10 stories high. The colonel walks directly into the conference. It is crowded and busy, with lot of colors, television screens, lab rats, and actual prototypes. Despite being supposedly only a mini-conference, the eggheads pull out the stop for this one.

The focus of SGC research centers on xenotechnology, spaceships, weapons, and robots, especially the robots. Robots which are sorely needed yesterday because of the lack of manpower caused by the need for secrecy. Thus, robot parts and prototypes liter the conference floor, as if it were a disassembled factory. The building already has an industrial feel to it. There's lot of pipes and electric wiring that hangs out in full view in multicolor, along with the grey steel that form the structure. So, the exhibitions reinforce the industrial atmosphere.

The Colonel, chief egghead of SGC, takes a deliberate stroll so that he can get a better overview of the projects that his scientists and engineers are currently engaging in or proposing.

"Energy Weapon. AK-47 of the future?" Doctor Lee catches the colonel's attention. "Allow this video to demonstrate." The video plays a slow motion video of a flesh wound taking out a chunk of a rhino's body.

"As you can see," Lee continues. "The staff weapon is no joke. It can kill. However, it is a poor substitute for a battle rifle. It has terrible accuracy, range, and firepower. Nonetheless, it has one prime advantage." Lee plays the next video. This time, the video is a time lapse of the staff weapon endlessly firing as time progresses into hours, days, weeks, and then months. "We are still firing this weapon to this day. This is the great advantage of Ra's staff weapon. It uses energy very efficiently, backed by a virtually limitless power supply, what we now know as a naquadah-based compound, the same element that is used in the stargate. Logistics? Who care, as long as you can supply your soldiers with those weapons, assuming that they are easy to make."

"Nonetheless, we still don't know much how the weapon works," Lee concedes. "For example, for an energy weapon to work, it must generate a magnetic field that contains the discharging plasma or else the plasma will just disperse. Though, our experimentation did produce a promising mean of propulsion. " Colonel Davis smirks. Research have a tendency to spin off unexpected questions and unexpected technology. "Another example is that we do not understand how the staff weapon procures energy from the naquadah fuel cell. Such an energy source will revolutionize our technology base provided that we find more of Naquadah to mine and figure out how to use it." Doctor Lee can go on and on about his project, but Davis already understand the gist of it.

He is ready to move on to the next exhibition, but before he could do that, his phone beeps.

"What is it?" he answers the phone.

"We found something new from the new blimp drone," Harriman informs. "You want to see it, sir."

"Is it another bizzaro animal? I can have the biologists catalogue it."

"No, not at all. We found a floating island, sir."

"What?"

"A floating island," Harriman repeats. Ok, New Abydos just got even more bizarre.

"How far is it?"

"Six hundred miles from our location. At the direction and speed it is going, it will be floating above our city in about a month." Davis's smile turns into a frown.

"Trouble in paradise, again," Davis remarks.

"Sir? I thought it would be of interest to you."

"It is very interesting, but New Abydos full of things that want to eat us. That island might contains something particularly nasty. Contact SGC and let Hammond know. Also, we need more troops."

"Colonel Beck is already ahead of you, sir. Plus, he wants an actual airfield."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"And he wants aviation grade fuel from Langara and train tracks, complete with a container yard. An airfield, too. He's already ordering RED HORSE to start on the project."

"Contact the Langarian embassy on Diplomatic Planet Alpha and get a RED HORSE unit there. Let the Langarian knows that we may need to talk to them about a potential trade agreement."

-o0o0o0o0o-  
**Stargate HQ**  
**Area 52, Earth**  
**A few minutes later**  
-o0o0o0o0o-

"...Reports indicate that shipping containers to Area 52 slows down to a trickle in recent weeks..." Hammond reads Rob Littleton's blog. The general jolts down a quick note on his tablet, furrowing his eyebrow and thinking long and hard about what he just read.

Normally, Hammond's staff does all the work of researching and finding secrecy leaks and the bald general signs off high level orders after a brief summary or debriefing. But Hammond has a policy of learning the job function of his staff through doing part of their work from time to time. It helps his command function efficiently.

The blue phone rings. Something urgent from New Abydos. Hammond pauses his work on secrecy leak.

"What is it, Alpha Colony?"

"It's requisition again, sir. Colonel Beck wants to build up in response to an unknown threat. Colonel Davis wants aviation fuels from Langara, as well a logistic infrastructure."

"What is this threat?"

"A floating island that is heading our way within a month." Hammond can only lower his head in frustration. With a quick mouse click, the budget spreadsheet on New Abydos appears on his monitor. Already, it grown an order of magnitude in demand. But the SGC cannot abandon the place. The strange biology that makes the place absolutely terrifying also makes it incredibly valuable. Studying jet equipped flying predators will eventually be turned into something valuable technologically, someday, somehow. The general just hope that the exponentially growing budget will taper off at some point.

"What else do they need?"


End file.
